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THE MAMELUKE'S LEAP. — Frontispiece, 



THE 



Knockabout Club 



IN 



NORTH AFRICA 



BY 



<^^ 



FRED" ArOBER 



FULLY ILLUSTRATED 




BOSTON 

ESTES AND LAURIAT 

PUBLISHERS 



Copyright, 1890, 
By Estes and Lauriat. 



A// Rights Reserved. 



University Press: 
John Wilson and Son, Cambridge, U.S.A. 



CONTENTS. 



Chapter Page 

I. A Peep into the Dark Continent from Gibraltar to Tangier ... ii 

II. Ten Days in Tangier. — Snake-charmers and Arab Dens 27 

III. A Caravan Journey to Fez. — The Powder-play, and the Sultan . . 47 

IV. Morocco and the Moors 63 

V. Some Time in a Pirate City 77 

VI. A Railroad Journey in Algiers 94 

VII. Arab Tombs and Arab Cities iii 

VIII. The ''Diamond in an Emerald Setting" 134 

IX. In the Corsairs' Stronghold. — The Doctor tells an Indian Story . 148 

X. All about the Algerl^s 167 

XI. A Lion-hunt in the Aures Mountains 183 

XII. Tunis, Carthage, and the Great Desert . 195 

XIII. From Tripoli to Egypt 214 

XIV. The Pyramids and the Nile 229 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 



Page 

The Mameluke's Leap . . . Frontispiece 

A Beggar of Tangier 12 

On Board the Steamer 14 

The Rock of Gibraltar . . . . . . 17 

Moonlight on the Mediterranean ... 19 

Nearing the Coast of Africa 20 

A View of Tangier from the Sea ... 22 

Tangier 23 

Snake-charming 29 

Jews of Tangier 33 

The Grand Mosque, Tangier .... 36 

The Morning Prayers 37 

Arab Woman of Tangier 41 

Principal Street of Tangier 45 

Amusements on the Journey .... 48 

The Powder-play 49 

Interior of a Moorish Mosque • . • • 53 

An Officer of the Moorish Legation . . ^'j 

Feats of Horsemanship 59 

Travelling in Morocco 61 

A Solitary Tree on the Plain .... 64 

A Scene in Morocco 65 

On the Coast of Morocco 67 

A Rapid Gait 69 

A Moorish Festival 69 

The City of Morocco 71 

Arabian Travellers 73 

A Soldier of Morocco 74 

A Moorish Band of Music 75 



Page 

Natives of Morocco 78 

A Moor 79 

Feats of Horsemanship at the Fete of 

Mahomet 80 

Nemours Z-^ 

Fete at the Anniversary of the Birth of 

Mahomet 89 

Tailpiece 93 

Travelling in Algeria 96 

Mosque of Sidi Abd-er-Rahhmann . . 98 

An Algerian Beauty 99 

An Algerian Antelope-hunter .... 103 

Mosque of Sidi Salahh, at Ouargla . . 108 

An Oasis of the Algerian Sahara . . . 109 

The Moorish Method of Ploughing . . 113 

A Young Moor 115 

A Moorish General 117 

Musicians of Morocco 121 

Tlemcen 125 

At the End of a Journey 129 

An Oasis in the Desert 136 

Decatur's Fight with the Algerian . . 143 

Stephen Decatur 146 

An Equestrian Dance 153 

Merchant and Camel 157 

Door of Mosque of Bou Medina ... 161 

Tailpiece 166 

Arab Women of the Interior . 169 

Moorish Women at Home 173 



Vlll 



ILLUSTRA TIONS, 



Page 

A Bride being conducted to her Hus- 
band's Home 175 

The Arab's Song of Victory .... 177 

The Conceited Young Lion .... 179 

" The lions began to arrive " . . . . 181 

A Lion and a Lioness 185 

An Oasis appearing in a Mirage to 

Travellers in the Desert . . . . 189 

A Mountain Pass in Tunis 191 

Medjerdab, the most important River in 

Tunis ........... 193 

A Mosque in Tunis 194 

A View of the New Portion of Biskra . 196 

Camping-place in Sight of Biskra . . 197 



Pack 

Mosque of Sidi Ben Ferdha, Biskra . . 201 

The Native Quarter of Biskra .... 202 

Mosque of Sidi Mohhammed, at Biskra 203 
"A fearful roar thundered from the 

mountains " 209 

RepelHng Arab Robbers 215 

The Citadel of Tripoli 216 

Decatur Saihng into the Harbor of 

Tripoli 217 

A View of Tripoli 220 

Donkey-Boys 225 

Man's W^illing Slave 230 

Pyramids and Sphinx 231 

Egyptian Garden and Temple . . . 235 



THE KNOCKABOUT CLUB IN NORTH AFRICA, 



Seated in a Moorish garden 
On the Sahel of Algiers, 
Wandering breezes brought the biirden 
Of its history in past years. 
Lost amid the mist of ages 
Its first chronicles arise ; 
Yonder is the chahi of Atlas 
And the Pagan paradise. 

' Past these shores the wise Phoenicians 
Coasted onward toward the Westy 
Hoping there to find Atlantis , 
And the Islands of the Blest. 
Somewhere in these mystic valleys 
Grew the golden-fruited trees 
Which the wandering sons of Zeus 
Stole from the HesperidesJ' 



1 



THE 

KNOCKABOUT CLUB IN NORTH AFRICA, 




CHAPTER I. 

A PEEP INTO THE DARK CONTINENT FROM GIBRALTAR TO TANGIER. 

TANDING upon the topmost . rock that capped 
the fortifications at Gibraltar, the Professor and I 
resolved to penetrate into the continent spread 
out before us. It was new to us, yet occupied by 
the oldest races of mankind. It lay before us in- 
vitingly, — this unexplored region, Africa, — its 
plains smiling in sunshine, its hills rising into mountains. Only a 
narrow strait separated us from the northern coast of the Dark 
Continent. A few hours' sail would take us to that land of mys- 
teries, the home of the fierce Arab, of the camel, the lion, elephant, 
gorilla, giraffe. 

It was not our intention to strive for Equatorial Africa, for the 
Mountains of the Moon, the Congo, or the sources of the Nile. 
We were not equipped for that ; but we were quite prepared to go 
into Morocco, to essay a caravan trip across the Great Desert, to 
hunt the lion in the mountains of Aures, to tent with the Bedouin, 
and to explore the most attractive portion of Algeria. This, in 
brief, is our plan, and we cordially invite you to join us. 

Perhaps some of our readers have already accompanied us on 
former expeditions, — waded with us through the Everglades, sailed 



12 



THE KNOCKABOUT CLUB IN NORTH AFRICA. 



the Antilles, or tramped with us through historic Spain. This 
being the case, you may share our feelings, and yearn for some 
new country to conquer. You are welcome to go with us, dear 
reader, even though we have never met you and may never see 



^Xa>- 



you. Join, then, the silent 
caravan of people we never 
see, of friends whose voices we 
never hear, yet whose presence 
we ever feel, inciting us to 
new endeavor and higher ef- 
fort. Believe us, we would 
like to be of service to you ; 
we would like to provide for 
you such entertainment and 
such instruction that it will 
be good for you that you 
have been with us. We may, 
doubtless, we do, seem dim 
and shadowy to you, because 
we hide our personality under 
assumed titles ; but we are 
nevertheless alive, dear friends, 
and may move among you, 
and have acquaintance with friends of yours. Our adventures 
are none the less real because they are not always given in the 
*' first person singular." It may be our modesty, or pure affec- 
tation, that causes us to hide our identity; but you may rely upon 
the authenticity of our descriptions and the truthfulness of our 
natures. Only truth will prevail at the last, and he only shall stand 
who tells the truth. 

As we have already stated in another " Knockabout," our motive 
for travel is found in the desire to learn, and especially to study 




A BEGGAR OF TANGIER. 



A PEEP INTO THE DARK CONTINENT. 1 3 

the history of the various countries of the world. We like to see 
for ourselves the countries where great events have taken place, 
and meet the strange people of historic lands. The Professor 
has a somewhat scientific turn of mind, and is inclined to be rather 
absorbed in his work, and (between you and me) he is not always 
so companionable as he ought to be. Why, I have known him to 
spend half a day hunting for arrow-heads, or stone chisels, or some 
other relics of early Indians, and even neglect his meals on account 
of some strange bug or plant that he considered of more value than 
humanity. Now, of course the Professor has a great deal in him 
of value, if you can only get it out of him. That is what I am 
constantly doing, or trying to do, — forcing my companion to dis- 
gorge some of his valuable information ; and then I try to put it in 
an entertaining shape. So if you find any dull or prosy things in 
this book you must set them down to the Professor; and if you 
find anything really good, why — modesty forbids that I mention 
the name that ought to have the credit. As for myself, the His- 
torian, perhaps the less said the better. I am one half of the 
Siamese twin, as we may say, and the Professor is the other. 
Between us we hope to interest you, at all events. 

Well, as I began, we took our first survey of the African coast 
from the Rock of Gibraltar, and then descended to take steamer 
for Tangier, the port of Morocco, at which we purposed beginning 
our African explorations. As we reached the quay, the steamer 
came to anchor in the harbor, and we hired a boatman to row 
us out. He was a villanous-looking fellow, the very worst type 
of a Rock Scorpion, as the Spanish natives of Gibraltar are 
called. As soon as we entered the boat, the Professor became 
interested in a species of sponge and a barnacle that lay in the 
bottom, and was so absorbed that he did not notice the wild 
looks of our boatman as we neared the steamer. The Rock 
Scorpion landed us, however, the sailors hoisted our baggage on 



14 



THE KNOCKABOUT CLUB IN NORTH AFRICA. 



board, and I put into his hand just double the amount he had 
agreed on as fare. That was a mistake, as I soon saw, for it 




ON BOARD THE STEAMER. 



excited the Scorpion's cupidity, and he demanded as much more. 
The feeling of compassion that had prompted me to double 
the fare changed at once to contempt at his meanness, and 



A PEEP INTO THE DARK CONTINENT. 



15 



I of course promptly refused. The Scorpion became furiously 
enraged, dashed his hat into the boat, tightened his leather belt 
about his waist, and swore that he would have double fare or 
throw me into the sea. I was then standing on the lower step 
of the ladder, the ship's side towering over me, and clinging by 
one hand. I looked up and around, and saw that I was at the 
mercy of the Scorpion, for there was n't anybody else in sight. 
The Professor, having become interested in the sponge, had taken 
it on deck to examine, while the sailors, after having hoisted our 
luggage on board, had disappeared. But I was determined not 
to accede to the man's demands, for it was a matter of principle 
and not of money. 

Seeing my almost defenceless position, the Scorpion made a 
pass at me with his hand, which I parried ; and then he ran to 
the stern of the boat and drew out of the locker a long knife. 
I did not wait for his return, but scampered up the ladder as 
fast as my legs could carry me ; yet he, being a sailor, and better 
used to the rolling of the ship, w^as half-way up the ladder before 
I could reach the gangway. I could hear his panting, could almost 
feel his hot breath on my^ back. xA^nother minute and I should 
be safe on board, w^here I hoped some one would intercept him. 
But I slipped at the top step and came down upon my knees. 
That was almost fatal to me, for the Scorpion at once sprang 
on my back. I could feel his grip at my waistband ; then I saw 
the long knife flash before my face. 

It was little use to struggle, because the Scorpion had me at 
such disadvantage ; yet I tried to raise myself and throw him off. 
Thinking, probably, that he had me at his mercy, he played with 
me as a cat plays with the mouse in her grasp, and for a few 
seconds delayed striking me. He seemed to have forgotten the 
cause of dispute, but was now so wild with passion that his only 
thought was to kill me. At such times men of this stamp do not 



1 6 THE KNOCKABOUT CLUB IN NORTH AFRICA. 

allow reason to have a voice ; they are insane, worse even than 
brutes. I had my wits at work, though, and as he dallied with 
the knife I half turned about and seized his arm. This quick 
motion probably saved my life, for it diverted his attention, and 
just at that moment relief came to me. A hand was thrust over 
my shoulder, and the man's throat was in its grasp. This enabled 
me to slip out from under him, seize the knife, and throw it over- 
board. At about the same time, or as soon as it was accomplished, 
a vigorous kick from the person who had come to my rescue sent 
the Scorpion spinning down the ladder and into the sea. He 
floundered about awhile, but soon clambered into his boat and 
sullenly rowed away. He was thoroughly cowed ; he had played 
a desperate game and had lost. 

Looking up to thank my deliverer, I was astonished to see a 
familiar face. 

" Why, Doctor, is it you 1 " 

" The same," answered a cheery voice ; •' nobody else than yours 
truly." 

I silently pressed his hand, and he knew that my gratitude was 
greater than I could express in words. 

" All right, old fellow ; don't mention it. Glad I came in the 
nick of time. Think the Scorp meant to stick you. That was an 
ugly-looking knife he had. But I just enjoyed kicking him down 
the ladder. It isn't often I have a chance to get even with the 
beggars. So you don't owe me anything ; the act was its own 
reward." 

" But, Doctor, where did you come from 1 How came you here } " 

*' Oh, a short story soon told. Been in France over a year. 
Met a man you knew in Spain ; said you were going to Africa ; 
so took steamer at Marseilles and headed you off." 

" Good ! and you will go with us } " 

" Go ? Of course I '11 go. What else did I come here for } 



i 




THE ROCK OF GIBRALTAR. 



A PEEP INTO THE DARK CONTINENT. 



19 



Can't let two babes like you and Professor wander off into the 
wilds alone. Made plenty money in Paris ; have come down here 
to spend it. 1 11 head the caravan, with your permission, and will 
go along, any way. Where is the Professor .f* Mooning about over 
some old relic, as usual, of course." 

We soon found the Professor, who seemed very glad to have the 
Doctor join us, remarking that now we should have somebody at 
the head of affairs who would make those Arabs mind their 
business. 




MOONLIGHT ON THE MEDITERRANEAN. 



The Doctor, by the way, had been our companion in the 
Antilles, and had amused us with his sprightly ways and kept 
up our spirits with his never-failing good-humor. I especially 
welcomed the Doctor, since the Professor was always so wrapped 
up in himself that he was hardly aware of my presence. As 
we sat on the hurricane deck the Doctor questioned us as to our 
plans. 

"Now, in the first place," he said, "Africa is a big country; 
as a continent, it ranks with the three largest divisions of the 
globe. It is nearly five thousand miles long, and forty-six hun- 
dred wide in its broadest part, extending over seventy-two degrees 



20 



THE KNOCKABOUT CLUB IN NORTH AFRICA. 



of latitude, — from latitude 2)T north of the equator to 35° south, — ■ 
and between Greenwich longitude 52° east and 18° west. We are 
told that it is about twelve million miles in area, and has a popu- 
lation of perhaps one hundred million. Now, what I want to 
know is, what part of this big continent you intend to explore. 
If it's part of it I 'm with you; if it's the whole of it I am 
still there, even if you tramp all over its twelve million miles of 
area." This was a remarkably long and connected speech for the 
Doctor, and he paused to take breath, while the Professor cleared 
his throat preparatory to enlightening him. 




NEARING THE COAST OF AFRICA. 

*' My dear boy," said the Professor, in a fatherly way, "you always 
remind me of a gun, — an old muzzle-loader, single-barrel gun, — for 
when you are once loaded and are touched off, you discharge your 
entire load, and are then as empty as ever! Now that you have 
given us all the geographical and statistical information you pos- 
sess, for which we are truly grateful, though we knew it all before, — 

we will proceed to fill you up with new material, that you may not 



A PEEP INTO THE DARK CONTINENT. 2 1 

remain entirely empty. Know, then, that we do not propose to 
accomplish the exploration of all Africa in a single year. Other 
men, far greater than we, have spent their lives in exploring a com- 
paratively small portion of this Dark Continent. We shall not 
even go into Equatorial Africa, and shall certainly leave the 
Congo and the sources of the Nile to the intrepid Stanley. We 
want to acquaint ourselves with that portion lying between the 
Straits of Gibraltar and Tunis, because we know that is all we 
can properly investigate in the time at our disposal. Our main 
object is to study the Arabs and native peoples in their homes, 
and become acquainted with an Oriental civilization. We are going 
to begin with Morocco, and shall first land at Tangier, and pro- 
vide ourselves with guides and escort for the interior, where! expect 
our most exciting adventures will begin." 

" And there it is now," said the Doctor, rising from his seat. 

Behind us, dim in distance, lay Gibraltar, before us Tangier, chief 
port of Morocco. 

Gibraltar, we have already described. We left it the same day 
we arrived. Arriving at six in the morning, the steamer for Tangier 
departed at eleven that forenoon. Great cloud-masses hung over 
Spain, beneath them the burnished shields of the Sierra Nevadas, while 
the African coast lay before us clear and green and smiling. And 
in the afternoon Tangier lay before us, the ancient Tandja^ " city 
protected by the Lord," the oldest city, perhaps, of this part of Africa. 
It lies on a slope, not unlike Algiers, its white walls sparkling in 
the sun, though it has no protected harbor like Algiers, and it is 
a long distance from the steamer anchorage to the mole. Crowning 
the triangular town is the Kasba. the citadel ; batteries flank it and 
frown along the shore ; a dome here and there breaks the outline, 
and three minarets rise above the sea of roofs. The Bay of Tangier 
is magnificent in its breadth and sweep, but it is shallow. A yellow 
beach curves around in front of a pleasing landscape of fields and 



22 



THE KNOCKABOUT CLUB IN NORTH AFRICA. 



low hills, and one hill in particular is green with gardens on its 
slopes. 

A noisy swarm of Arabs surrounded the steamer at once, and 
to their untried mercies we were intrusted. There was no help for 
it, so into the boats we went, our luggage tumbling after, and away 
our wild boatmen rowed, singing, shouting, and swearing, for the 
yellow beach. But they were not so very bad to us, and charged 
us but two francs each for the voyage, including the luggage. The 
latter they landed on the beach, and then brought us before the 
oiBcers of the customs. This was an ordeal we had long dreaded, 




A VIEW OF TANGIER. FROM THE SEA. 



for people of our own blood had often treated us barbarously at 
the customs, and what could we expect from piratical Mahometans ? 
There was no custom-house, but in lieu thereof an old dry-goods 
box, upon v/hich sat a grave and dignified Turk ; at least, he looked 
like a Turk, and doubtless was. He was wrapped in an ample robe 
of white, had an immense turban on his head, and a long white beard 
flowed down to his girdle. He looked like a patriarch, not even 
Abraham himself more so. He fixed his eye on us, but said no 
word. I trembled as my trunk was brought before him, and did not 
doubt that the next minute I should be ordered to the bastinado. He 



A PEEP INTO THE DARK CONTINENT. 25 

waved his hand ; an obedient servant opened the trunk ; he waved 
his hand again, and the servant closed it. That was all. Not a word 
had been said, but I was free to enter Tangier. Immediately a hungry 
horde of Arabs pounced upon me. They seized me and my trunk 
and valises, and pulled me and them in every direction at once. 
They led me and my fellow-sufferers through numerous winding 
ways till we came to the Hotel Continental, said to be the best 
in the place, but only to find it full. Even the bath-tub had an 
occupant, the French proprietor told us. 

Then we were saved as by a miracle. Early in the fray I had 
been pounced upon by a stalwart Arab, who drove away all the 
smaller ones, appropriated all my luggage, which he carried easily 
upon his brawny shoulders, and took me under his special charge. 

" Come with me," he said, in Spanish. " I will take the Senor 
to a hotel where the charges are cheap and the fare is good, though 
few people go there, because it is kept by a Spaniard." 

Then he led us through other narrow streets and winding lanes, 
until we brought up at the Fonda Iberica, kept by Nicholas Fer- 
nandez. It was in an obscure quarter of the city, so surrounded 
by Arab dens and houses that we could never find it without a 
guide ; but it was kept as well as the worthy Don Nicholas could 
afford, the host and hostess were kindly, and it was the only hotel 
not full of strangers. This Fonda Iberica, — the Iberian Hotel, — to 
which the Spaniard had given the ancient name of Spain itself, 
Iberus, was, as I have said, in a street so narrow and obscure that 
I could only approximately locate it by remembering that there was 
a fuente, a fountain, in the market-place, somewhere near the spot 
where the street turned off and began its devious windings and 
tunnelHngs. 

My guide was called Mahomet, though this name did not dis- 
tinguish him, for every other man and boy in Tangier bears the same 
cognomen. He was an Arab, and wore the customary costume, — 



26 THE KNOCKABOUT CLUB IN NORTH AFRICA. 

the gehab or the burnous, a flowing robe without sleeves, of cotton, 
adorned with a capote, like a monk's hood, which reached from neck 
to heels ; a greasy fez, once red, on his head, the tassel jauntily 
dangling; on his bare feet red slippers, with their heels chopped off, 
his heels hanging over the soles, cracked and grimy with dirt at least 
a quarter of an inch thick. Mahomet had a swinging gait, and a 
rollicking, sw^ash-buckler air, that bore out his statement that he had 
served years in the royal guard. He by right of discovery claimed 
me as his exclusive. property, and resented any assumption of right 
in any one else. During my stay in Tangier he clung to me tena- 
ciously, and went with me everywhere. 

I find in my note-book this comment, written at the beginning 
of our acquaintance : " I think he is a rascal, but he probably has 
his price, and the only question between us, I apprehend, will be 
the difference betwixt his price and mine." To his credit let me 
say it, he did not prove extortionate. 

After I had rested, Mahomet conducted me to and through the 
market-place in the outskirts of the city, called the Sok. We passed 
first through the city square, a paved place surrounded with shops, 
and, like all the streets, filthy in the extreme, with piles of garbage, 
pools of slime and mud, stacks of dead cats, rats, fowls, and ordure. 
Through these Stygian pools the Arabs paddled serenely in their 
white robes, scarcely noticing any obstruction, whether of filth, 
foreigner, or donkey. 




CHAPTER II. 

TEN DAYS IN TANGIER. — SNAKE-CHARMERS AND ARAB DENS. 

|E got along very well at the Fonda Iberica. As it 
was near the American consulate, the Doctor made 
himself very much at home with our consul, spend- 
ing much of his time there. The Professor found 
a great deal to interest him at the house of an 
Americanized Jew who had a perfect curiosity-shop 
of Oriental things ; and many a quaint bit of pottery and rare piece 
of silken stuff was exchanged for the Professor's gold and silver. Both 
consulate and shop were interesting to me, but the people of Tangier 
claimed much of my attention, and so I paid court to the Arabs. 

All these Arabs mind their own business, and are courteous 
as well as reserved. Later on I went about with my camera, taking 
photographs in the most crowded streets ; but no one noticed me, 
or paid the slightest attention to my movements. Against the 
outer walls of the city, near the central gate, an old Arab had 
spread out a great collection of Moorish knives, swords, long brass- 
barrelled guns with triangular butts, old clothes, and tarnished 
ornaments; but all were very dear, and I did not purchase. 

The most interesting people here, to me, were the workers in 
brass. They sat squatted on the mud floors of their shops, stamp- 
ing out various figures in sheets of brass, making trays and salvers, 
which were very cheap, ranging from a peceta (twenty cents) to 
a dollar. 



28 THE KNOCKABOUT CLUB IN NORTH AFRICA. 

Through the market-place we worried our way, pricing various 
articles and making purchases, — or rather my guide did for me. 
At every place we stopped, Mahomet made long palaver in Arabic, 
to which the shopm.an replied with equal fluency, the result always 
being that the price was a little more than if I had depended upon 
my unaided efforts ! For Mahomet expected, and he always returned 
and got, a small fee for every article sold the stranger. This, of 
course, invariably added to the price, and the stranger had to pay 
it. As nearly all the shopmen spoke Spanish a little, I really 
needed no guide, and soon found that I could save money by making 
my purchases myself. 

The second day of my stay in Tangier the great market-place 
outside the walls was crowded with Arabs from the country, come 
in to hold a fair, — long trains of camels, troops of horses, and a 
motley crowd of ragged Bedouins. They pitched their brown tents 
of goat's-hair in every available spot ; they made the filthy place even 
filthier, and the air was rent with their various cries. All sorts of 
strolling jugglers and players congregated here, but the chief cen- 
tre of attraction was the snake-charmer. He was a wild, half-naked 
Bedouin, with his tangled hair falling over a face in which cunning 
and ferocity were equally mixed. He had a sack full of snakes, 
which by a sudden movement he emptied upon the ground. The 
crowd, that had closely pressed him, quickly scattered, but hemmed 
him in again when he began to perform. A naked boy sat on the 
ground, making doleful noises upon a tom-tom, and an old hag sat 
crouched at his left hand. Taking a large snake in his hand, he 
bit it in the middle, and then left it free to squirm about his head 
and shoulders. The reptile darted wildly about, but did not seem 
to dare to bite, hissing in his face and thrusting out its flaming 
tongue. Another snake he took and held in front of his face, 
thrusting out his tongue, at which the snake would dart its own 
and strive to bite it. Other snakes he coiled about his arms and 



TEN DAYS IN TANGIER. 



31 



placed in his hair, until he was almost enveloped in writhing rep- 
tiles. He did not escape scathless, however, for one of these, a 
thick-bodied snake with triangular head, bit him on the arm. In- 
stantly ridding himself of the others, he seized this one by the neck 
and thrust its head into the cavernous jaws of a species of boa, and 
held it there until the boa had begun to swallow it. Despite the 
struggles of the victim, it slowly entered the craw of the boa, the 
distance between the mouth and its tail growing shorter and shorter. 
A shower of coppers rewarded the charmer for his exhibition, but 
he gazed at the coin with contempt, and the old hag hobbled about, 
gathering them in. Another attraction drew the snake-charmer's 
audience away, and he glared about him until another crowd had 
collected. All this happened near the Bab-el-Sok, or Gate of the 
Market-place, which is one of the principal gates ; the other gate 
is at the other end of the chief street, and is called Bab-el-Marsa, or 
Gate of the Marine. 

The population of Tangier is said to be about fifteen thousand, 
with about four hundred Europeans. The chief attractions are the 
market-places, the Kasba, the mosques (which no unbelievers may 
enter), and the Pasha's palace, where is the harem, which is some- 
times shown to ladies, but never to men. 

Now and then you may see women in the streets, though rarely, 
enveloped in white haiks. A well-known writer says of Algiers: 
" Except the changes in artificial landmarks of the country, the 
greater infusion of the Arabic element into the language of the 
lowlands, the substitution of the prayers of El Islam for the rites 
of the Pagan, the adoption of firearms in place of bows and slings, 
and the use of saddles, the old Numidians and Mauritanians, with 
Massinissa and Syphax at their head, would now see, could they 
start from their graves, nothing to excite surprise." All the more 
is this true of Morocco than of Algiers, where there has been no 
change in a thousand years. 

The kingdom of Morocco is said to contain three hundred 



32 THE KNOCKABOUT CLUB IN NORTH AFRICA. 

thousand square miles, though it is undefined toward the south, 
and the least known portion of North Africa. It has mineral 
deposits of great value, it is thought, but they are unworked. Its 
backbone is the great Atlas chain of mountains, which rises in 
peaks as high as ten thousand feet, and in it all the Moroccan 
rivers take their rise. The aspect of the country varies with the 
year, from a desert to a garden. 

" Drifts of asphodel, white lilies, blue convolvuli, white broom- 
flowers, thyme and lavender, borage, marigold, purple thistles, colos- 
sal daisies and poppies, spread over the hills and plains in the 
spring in masses acres in extent ; but the season of floral splendor 
is brief." There are opportunities for agriculture, but the people 
seldom reap " more than will bring the year about." . 

The population is perhaps six million, of three elements, mainly 
Berbers, Arabs, Jews. It is probably less populous than it was 
two thousand years ago. Even to-day some of its cities are sacred 
cities, that no Christian can enter. Its history is here epitomized : 
Morocco, known to the Romans as Mauritania Tingitana, was con- 
quered by the Vandals, a. d. 429, but recovered to the East by 
Belisarius. The Arabs penetrated North Africa under Okba, but 
only conquered and converted the Berbers of Morocco at the time 
of Musa, in the early part of the eighth century. In the tenth 
century the Berbers, with the Fatimite caliphs at their head, over- 
threw and ended forever Arab rule here. Morocco w^as aggres- 
sively active in affairs till the end of the fourteenth century, when 
Spain and Portugal took its coast cities and subdued its spirit; 
it again revived, and pursued that career of piracy which has indeli- 
bly stamped the nation with opprobrium ; but at present it has only 
the prestige of former greatness, and has no standing in the affairs 
of nations. In this century the principal events are the abolition 
of Christian slavery and suppression of piracy, 1822 ; the defeat of 
forces sent to aid Abd-el-Kader in Algiers, the bombardment of 



':i!;ilXIIii:!!r;N:!!:::!!ii'!!i|!!ll!IIIH!:;ilill'!!I!;T''!n'i|ini||!!!Iilin!?i:^^ 



ill 





JEWS OF TANGIER. 



TEN DAYS IN TANGIER. 35 

Tangier and Mogador, rout of the Moors at the battle of Isly, and 
peace of Tangier, 1844; surrender to Spain of the disputed terri- 
tory of Ceuta, 1845; a Spanish invasion, victory by General O'Don- 
nell, Moors to pay twenty thousand piastres and allow a Spanish 
mission-house in Fez, i860; a decree, permitting Europeans to 
trade in any part of the empire, 1864. The country is under 
despotic control, the officials in power wTinging from the people 
all the money they can, and justice is only to be obtained in the 
Turkish way. There are no roads, and travel is unsafe. I found 
that I could go to Tetuan — an ancient and important city — in a 
day, if the roads were good ; but when I was there the roads were 
pronounced impassable. To make that short journey I should 
need — a soldier, as escort, with horse, at one dollar per day ; a 
horse or mule for myself, at the same price ; and provender for 
the journey. There is a hotel in Tetuan, kept by a Hebrew, who 
is, or was, British vice-consul. 

At about nine o'clock one evening Mahomet came for me with 
a lantern, and we sallied forth. There is not a street-lamp in all 
Morocco, and every street in Tangier is as dark as Tophet. The sky 
was clear, and all the stars were sparkling, as I could see by looking 
up through the rifts in the walls of rock which answered as streets. 
Everybody carries a lantern when out at night; though Tangier, 
unlighted as it is, is said to be safer than London or New York. 
Arabs and donkeys jostled us at every corner, but no one offered 
an insult. We drifted into an Arab cafe, where eight Moorish 
musicians were singing and playing like mad. Their instruments 
were peculiar, the chiefest being a big-bellied violin, shaped like half 
a watermelon. They sat cross-legged, on mats, their backs against 
the wall, and played as fast as they could move their elbows. Two 
or three of the plaintive songs sung by them were those of the 
Moors expelled from Andalusia. Coffee and sweetmeats were 
passed around ; then we paid the musicians and departed. 



36 



THE KNOCKABOUT CLUB IN NORTH AFRICA. 



Having signified to Mahomet a desire to gain a peep into a 
Moorish household, that worthy conducted me to a house in a 
narrow alley and knocked on the door. An old woman thrust 
out her face, and seeing Mahomet, opened the door just wide 

enough for us to enter, then 
^- ' '"- '^~'' '^ ^^^' " '^" ' .^— ^^-^^™.^^^:, quickly closed it. I found my- 
self in a small apartment with 
bare walls, at one end a divan 
covered with silks, upon which 
reclined a black-eyed maiden 
en deshabille. A round little 
youngster rolled on the floor ; 
a dim light flashed over the 
room from a brass lamp sus- 
pended high. It needed but 
a glance to discover that the 
damsel was not a Moorish 
maiden, but an apostate Jewess. 
She was gracious, though, and 
did not seem to resent the fact 
that her unveiled charms could 
not detain me. Hasta luego, — 
" Until we meet again," she said 
smilingly; and my adventure was ended. We reached the hotel 
about midnight. 

A fine view of the city is had from the Kasba, which caps the 
apex of the shining hill. The immense walls of this citadel enclose 
a small town by itself, and there the governor resides, in luxurious 
quarters. There is a mosque here, and the remains of structures 
of various epochs. The finest arches and corridors are those of 
the old Exchange, which is now used as a prison ; the miserable 
beings confined here rarely see light, and are fed by charity. 




THE GRAND MOSQUE, TANGIER. 



TEN DA YS IN TANGIER. 



Zl 



From the sea we have the best view of Tangier. It covers 
the slopes of three hills, with a valley between, and the Kasba 
crowds the southern hill, with its gray walls, white arches, and 
octagonal minaret. It has 
crenellated battlements, 

projecting buttresses, and ,.^- ^^ ^ ^ 

the remains of towers. 
The strongest portion is 
the water battery, below 
and east of the Kasba, to 
which stranQ^ers are not 
admitted. A long row 
of guns en barbette sur- 
mounts the wall above 
the mole, and guns peer 
out at intervals every- 
where, but they would be 
of little service against 
an armed vessel. The 
walls are in a very ruinous 
condition, especially on 
the landward side, where 
they are the more pictu- 
resque, being in places 
overgrown with vines and 
cacti, whose flowers blos- 
som everywhere. 

Now and then a mod- 
ern house crops out, but 

most are peculiar to the country ; they are white and creamy-hued. 
Behind all rises Mount Washington, named in honor of our first 
President : on either side are green slopes. To the east is a long 




^^^^3F^^— iH^re?^ 



THE MORNING PRAYERS. 



38 THE KNOCKABOUT CLUB IN NORTH AFRICA. 

Stretch of sand beach, behind which the pastures and hillside gardens 
are of a lovely green. The tiles of the mosques and minarets are 
most of them green, or greenish, with now and then a roof of red. 

But the sun has sunk beyond the horizon. From the minaret 
the muezzin now proclaims the hour of prayer. " Come to prayer ! 
Come to prayer! It is better to pray than to sleep!" As the 
rosy flush of sunset dies out of the sky, this call to prayer is re- 
peated throughout the city, and rolls over the roof-tops like a 
great wave, and the day is done. 

Gathered together on the roof-top of our hotel, as the muezzin's 
cry rang over the city, we listened to the Professor as he discoursed 
upon the early history of Morocco, and the conquest of North 
Africa by the followers of Mahomet: — 

El Hijra — the Flight of Mahomet — occurred A. D. 622, from Mecca 
to Medina. Mahomet was born about 571, and died 632. Within ninety 
years, Syria, Persia, and North Africa had been brought under control by 
his fanatical followers, and an army was gathered at the Pillars of Hercules, 
ready for the invasion of Spain. Previous to the appearance of Mahomet 
these Arabians had been idolaters and Nature-worshippers. A holy place, even 
to the early Arabs, was Zem-zem, the spring in the desert that had miracu- 
lously burst forth for the refreshing of Hagar and Ishmael, which finally be- 
came their Mek-kah, or place of concourse, where stood the kaaba, or temple, 
within it the black stone said to have fallen from Paradise at the fall of Adam, 
in a setting of silver, and placed in the northeast corner. Associated with 
these terms, Mecca and kaaba, is the Koran, the holy book, which Mahomet 
ingeniously constructed from the Jewish history and the Jewish prophets, draw- 
ing distinctions without differences. The prophets (according to Mahomet) 
are Adam, Seth, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus — and Mahomet. Islamism 
insists, first, upon belief in God, in angels, in the Koran, in the prophets, in 
predestination. At Mahomet's death there were two rivals, Ali, his cousin 
and son-in-law, husband of Fatima, and Abu Bekr, father of his favorite wife, 
Ayesha, and who was elected caliph. The various sect^ and schisms date 
from this division. An army of conquest was sent into Syria, and Damascus 
was taken A. D. 634. Cairo {El Kakira, City of Victory) also fell before the 
fanatics, then Alexandria, in 640, and six million Copts are said to have sub- 



TEN DAYS IN TANGIER. 39 

mitted voluntarily and adopted the religion of their conquerors. Then (as we 
know) was burned the famous Library of Alexandria, according to the decree 
of Omar: ** If these writings of the Greeks agree with the Koran, they are use- 
less, and need not be preserved ; if they disagree, they are pernicious, and 
ought to be destroyed." In this connection, let me note that the blood-stained 
copy of the Koran held by Othman (who was beheaded 650) is said to have 
been later found in the mosque of Cordova, in Spain. 

The Caliphate was removed to Damascus, 673, and thence the Moslem 
armies were sent out east and west under Sezid to Constantinople, and Obah 
was made governor of Africa. North Africa at that time went by its Roman 
names, such as Numidia, Mauritania, Tingitania, Morocco. A trusted gen- 
eral named Musa (Moses) was appointed to command in Eastern Africa, and 
his armies quickly conquered the Berbers, who flocked by thousands to his 
banner and his religion. Mosques were built, with their kibbah, or holy niche, 
toward the east, toward Mecca, and the minaret at the other end, whence the 
muezzin shouted the call to prayer: " Great God! Great God ! There is no 
God except God ! " 

In the early years of the eighth century, under Al Walid, caliph of Damas- 
cus, Islamism '' was established from the banks of the Ganges to the surges of 
the Atlantic." Musa was made Ernir .of Africa and supreme commander of 
the Moslems in the west. He had under him six noble sons, one of whom 
finally took Tangier, — the Tingis of the Romans, called by the Arabs Tanjah, 
— command over which was given to Tarik Ibu Zeyad Ibu Abdillah, the Tarik 
who invaded Spain, and whose name is preserved in the rock of Gibraltar, — 
Gib-el-Tarik. But at Tangier the Arab armies gathered, and this key to the 
strait was made the point d'appui for the invasion of Andalus. The Arab 
armies gathered restlessly at Tangier. " For more than three quarters of a 
century conquerors, they were burning for greater conquests ; they were sol- 
diers, and the sons of soldiers." 

The Arabians, then, were the people who in the early years of the eighth 
century brought all Spain under Moslem rule, and they were aided b\' such 
others of the African tribes as had been converted to their faith. Their main- 
spring of action may be found in their religion, the faith of Islam, or resigna- 
tion to the will of God. This, as they interpreted it, made it incun\bent upon 
them to bring everybody outside their fold to their way of thinking, — whether 
dead or alive it mattered little to the Mahometans. As this religion, Islam- 
ism, wrought such changes in the north of Africa as well as throughout the 
Orient, let us criancc at its articles of faith. 



40 THE KNOCKABOUT CLUB IN NORTH AFRICA. 

" Monotheism was its keystone, and predestination its supporting columns." 
La riaha ilia AllaJi^ Mithainmed resold Allah, — "There is no God but Allah, 
and Muhammed is the prophet of Allah." Upon the walls of the Alhambra 
to-day we find inscriptions conveying similar meanings. These Moslems were 
Unitarians, with a reservation in favor of Mahomet as the prophet of their 
God. They early cast aside the images of their ancestors, and were less given 
to their worship than the Jews, or even the Romanists. 

All good Mahometans are strictly enjoined to prayer, almsgiving, fasting, 
and the pilgrimage to Mecca. Although in Algiers the Moslems do not seem 
to live strictly up to their faith, yet they are supposed to pray at least four 
times in twenty-four hours, — 2X Azohbi, before sunrise; Adokar, just after 
meridian; Almagreb, before sunset; Alaksa^ in the evening. You may yet 
hear the muezzin admonishing the people from the minaret: " Come to prayers ! 
Come to prayers ! It is better to pray than to sleep ! " 

The angels were believed to be creatures of light, and there were four 
archangels, — Gabriel (^Jebraiel), Michael (^Meeha I), Azrael (the messenger of 
death), and Israfael (sounder of the resurrection trump). In addition to these 
there was Eblis, or the devil. 

A stranger who had preceded us describes perhaps better than 
we can the Arab cities of Tangier and Morocco : — 

*' Coming out upon the only square that Tangier can boast, which is cut 
by one long street that begins at the shore and crosses the whole town, you 
see a rectangular place surrounded by shops that would be mean in the poor- 
est of our villages. On one side there is a fountain constantly surrounded 
by blacks and Arabs drawing water in jars and gourds ; on the other side 
sit all day long on the ground eight or ten muffled women selling bread. 
Around this square are the very modest houses of the different Legations, 
which rise like palaces from the midst of the confused multitude of Moorish 
huts. Here is concentrated all the life of Tangier, — the life of a large village. 
The one tobacconist is here, the one apothecary, the one cafe, — a dirty room 
with a billiard-table, — and the one solitary corner where a printed notice may 
sometimes be seen. Here gather the half-naked street-boys, the rich and idle 
Moorish gentlemen, Jews talking about their business, Arab porters awaiting 
the arrival of the steamer, attaches of the Legations expecting the dinner- 
hour, travellers just arrived, interpreters, and impostors of various kinds. The 
courier arriving from Fez or Morocco with orders from the Sultan is to be met 










ARAB WOMAN OF TANGIER. 



TEN DAYS IN TANGIER. 43 

here, and the servant coming from the post with his hands full of journals 
from London and Paris ; the beauty of the harem and the wife of the minister ; 
the Bedouin's camel and the lady's lapdog; the turban and the chimney-pot 
hat ; and the sound of a piano from the windows of a consulate mingles with 
the lamentable chant from the door of a mosque. 

This country, shut in by the Mediterranean, Algeria, the Desert of Sahara, and 
the ocean, crossed by the great chain of the Atlas, bathed by wide rivers, opening 
into immense plains, with every variety of climate, endowed with inestimable 
riches in all the three kingdoms of Nature, destined by its position to be the great 
commercial high-road between Europe and Central Africa, is now occupied by 
about eight million of inhabitants, — Berbers, Moors, Arabs, Jews, Negroes, 
and Europeans, sprinkled over a vaster extent of country than that of France, 
The Berbers, who form the basis of the indigenous population, — a savage, tur- 
bulent, and indomitable race, — live on the inaccessible mountains of the Atlas, 
in almost complete independence of the Imperial authority. The Arabs, the 
conquering race, occupy the plains, — a nomadic and pastoral people, not 
entirely degenerated from their ancient haughty character. The Moors, cor- 
rupted and crossed by Arab blood, are in great part descended from the 
Moors of Spain, and inhabiting the cities, hold in their hands the wealth, trade, 
and commerce of the country. The blacks, about five hundred thousand, origi- 
nally from the Soudan, are generally servants, laborers, and soldiers. The Jews, 
almost equal in number to the blacks, are descended for the most part from 
those who were exiled from Europe in the Middle Ages, and are more oppressed, 
hated, degraded, and persecuted here than in any other country in the world. 
They exercise various arts and trades, and in a thousand ways display the in- 
genuity, pHability, and tenacity of their race, finding in the possessions torn 
from their oppressors a recompense for all their woes. The Europeans, whom 
Mussulman intolerance has little by little driven from the interior of the em- 
pire toward the coast, number less than two thousand in all Morocco, the 
greater part inhabiting Tangier, and living under the protection of the con- 
sular flags. 

This heterogeneous, dispersed, and irreconcilable population is oppressed 
rather than protected by military government that, like a monstrous leech, 
sucks out all the vital juice from the State. The tribes and boroughs, or 
suburbs, obey their sheiks, the cities and provinces the cadi, the greater prov- 
ince the pasha, and the pasha obeys the Sultan, — grand scherif, high-priest, 
and supreme judge, executor of the laws emanating from himself, free to 
change at his caprice money, taxes, weights, and measures, master of the pos- 
sessions and the lives of his subjects. Under the weight of this government, 



44 THE KAOCKABOUT CLUB IN NORTH AFRICA. 

and within the inflexible circle of the Mussulman religion, unmoved by Euro- 
pean influence, and full of a savage fanaticism, everything that in other countries 
moves and progresses, here remains motionless or falls into ruin. Commerce 
is choked by monopolies, by prohibitions upon exports and imports, and by 
the capricious mutability of the laws. Manufactures, restricted by the bonds 
laid upon commerce, have remained as they were at the time of the expulsion 
of the Moors from Spain, with the same primitive tools and methods. Agricul- 
ture, loaded heavily with taxes, hampered in exportation of produce, and only 
exercised from sheer necessity, has fallen so low as no longer to merit the 
name. Science, suffocated by the Koran, and contaminated by superstition, is 
reduced to a few elements in the higher schools, such as were taught in the 
Middle Ages. There are no printing-presses, no books, no journals, no geo- 
graphical maps; the language itself, a corruption of the Arabic, and represented 
only by an imperfect and variable written character, is becoming yearly more 
debased ; in the general decadence the national character is corrupted ; all the 
ancient Mussulman civilization is disappearing. Morocco, the last western bul- 
wark of Islamism, once the seat of a monarchy that ruled from the Ebro to the 
Soudan, and from the Niger to the Balearic Isles, glorious with flourishing 
university, with immense libraries, with men famous for their learning, with for- 
midable fleets and armies, is now nothing but a small and almost unknown 
State, full of wretchedness and ruin, resisting with its last remaining strength 
the advance of European civilization, seated upon its foundation still, but con- 
fronted by the reciprocal jealousies of civilized States. As for Tangier, the 
ancient Tingis, which gave its name to Tingitania Mauritania, it passed succes- 
sively from the hands of the Romans into those of the Vandals, Greeks, Visi- 
goths, Arabs, Portuguese, and English, and is now a city of about fifteen thousand 
inhabitants, considered by its sister cities as having been '' prostituted to the 
Christian," although there are no Christian churches in it. 



illli miuiiliiliiliiiiiiiiiiuiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii 





CHAPTER III. 

A CARAVAN JOURNEY TO FEZ. — THE POWDER-PLAY, AND THE SULTAN. 

lOURNEYING through Morocco is not considered 
safe, for Christians have ever in mind that it is 
inculcated in the Koran that " to kill a Christian 
will entitle a Mahometan to free transportation to 
heaven, in company with ten houris as attendants ; " 
and there are a great many Arabs desirous of taking 
the trip in just such company. 

To reach the great city of Fez, it would be necessary to take 
a week, and would cost about one hundred and fifty dollars, as a 
large escort is considered necessary. We were determined to make 
the journey, notwithstanding the fatigue and expense ; and finding 
a party of French and Italian travellers about to set out, we obtained 
permission to join them. 

One lovely day, when all the fields about Tangier were bright 
and blooming, we filed out of the Market Gate, the Bab-el-Sok, and 
took our way over the plains. As we did not pass through many 
towns on the route, I shall confine myself to narrating some of the 
interesting incidents by the way. We had a large escort, for our 
mission was a semi-official one, and soldiers are cheap in Morocco. 
The Doctor and I had each a splendid stallion of Arab blood ; but 
the Professor preferred a donkey, because he could be nearer the 
ground and could see the plants, minerals, and land-shells all the 
better as he went along. The Arab officers laughed at him as 



48 



THE KNOCKABOUT CLUB IN NORTH AFRICA. 



they pranced past on their magnificent horses, but the Professor 
didn't mind; and as for the rest of us, we had all we could do 
to manage our own spirited steeds. One of the finest exhibitions of 
the journey was the celebrated Powder-Play, and as it is described 
by the Italian, I give it in his words : — 

'' Then began one of the most splendid lab-el-barada (or powder-plays) 
that could be desired. They charged in couples, by tens, one by one, in the 




AMUSEMENTS ON THE JOURNEY. 



bottom of the valley, on the hills, in front and at the sides of the caravan, 
forward and backward, firing and yelling without cessation. In a few min- 
utes the valley was as full of the smoke and smell of powder as a battle- 
field. On every side horses pranced and glittered, mantles floated, and red, 
yellow, green, blue, and orange caftans mingled with the shine of sabres and 
poniards. One by one they darted by like winged phantoms, old and young, 



A CARAVAN JOURNEY TO FEZ. ' 5 1 

men of colossal proportion, strange and terrible figures, erect in their stirrups, 
with heads thrown back, hair streaming in the wind, and muskets held aloft ; 
and each as he discharged his piece gave a savage cry, which the interpreter 
translated for us : ' Have a care ! ' ' Oh, my mother ! ' * In the name of God ! ' 
' I kill thee ! ' ' Thou art dead ! ' * I am avenged ! ' Some dedicated the shot 
to a special purpose or person: 'To my master.' * To my horse.' 'To my 
dead.' ' To my sweetheart.' They fired up and down and behind, bending 
and twisting as though they had been tied to the saddle. Here and there one 
would lose his mantle or his turban, and he would turn in full career and pick 
it up with the point of his musket. Some threw their guns up in the air and 
caught them as they fell. Their looks and gestures were like those of men 
mad with drink, and risking their lives in a sort of joyful fury. Most of the 
horses dripped blood from their bellies, and the feet and stirrups and ex- 
tremities of the mantles of the riders were all bloody. Some faces in the 
multitude impressed themselves upon my memory from the first, — among 
others, a young man with a cyclopean head and an immense pair of shoulders, 
dressed in a rose-colored caftan, and who emitted a succession of roars like 
those of a wounded Hon; a lad of fifteen, handsome, bareheaded, and all in 
white, who passed three times, crying, ' My God ! my God ! ' a long, bony 
old man, with a most ill-omened visage, who flew by with half-shut eyes and 
a Satanic grin upon his face, as if he carried the plague behind him ; a black, 
all eyes and teeth, with a monstrous scar across his forehead, who writhed 
furiously about in his saddle, as if to free himself from the clutch of some 
invisible hand. 

" In this fashion they accompanied the march of the caravan, ascending 
and descending the heights, forming groups, dissolving and reforming, with 
every combination of color, till they seemed like the fluttering of a myriad 
of banners." 

With such scenes as this our time passed merrily. Everything 
was strange and new to us. At night tents were pitched and we 
slept on the ground, our heads pillowed on our saddles ; by day, we 
travelled on. The air was pure, the sun bright, and altogether it was 
a joyous journey. At the end of the sixth day, as it was time to 
pitch our camps, we caught sight of the minarets of Fez, the capital 
of Morocco. Next morning, with banners flying and wild riding 
Arabs discharging their muskets, we entered the sacred city. 



52 THE KNOCKABOUT CLUB IN NORTH AFRICA. 

" The city extends in the form of a monstrous figure eight, between two 
hills, upon which still tower the ruins of two ancient fortifications. Beyond the 
hills there is a chain of mountains. The Pearl River divides the town in two, — 
modern Fez on the left bank, ancient Fez on the right ; and a girdle of old 
castellated walls and towers, dark and falling into ruin, binds the whole to- 
gether. From the heights the eye takes in the whole city, — a myriad of 
white, flat-roofed houses, among which rise tall minarets ornamented with 
mosaics, gigantic palm-trees, tufts of verdure, green domes, and castellated 
towers. The grandeur of the ancient city can be divined from what is left, 
though it is but a skeleton. Near the gates, and upon the hills, for a long 
distance the country is covered with monuments and ruins, tombs and houses 
of the saints, arches of aqueducts, sepulchres, zanie, and foundations that seem 
like the remains of a city destroyed by cannon and devoured by flames. Be- 
tween the wall and the highest of the" two hills that flank the city it is all one 
garden; a thick and intricate grove of mulberry-trees, olives, palms, fruit- 
trees, and tall poplars, clothed with ivy and grape-vines, intersect it between 
high green banks. The opposite bank is crowned with aloes twice the height 
of a man. Along the walls are great fissures and deep ditches filled with 
vegetation, rude remains of bastions and broken towers, — a grand and severe 
disorder of ruin and greenery, recalling the picturesque parts of the walls of 
Constantinople. We passed by the Gate of Ghisa, the Iron Gate, the New 
Gate, the Burned Gate, the Gate that Opens, the Gate of the Lions, the Gate 
of Sidi Busida, the Gate of the Father of Utility, and re-entered New Fez by 
the Gate of the Niche of Butter. Here are large gardens, vast open spaces, 
large squares surrounded by battlemented walls beyond which can be seen 
other squares and other walls, arched gateways and towers, and beautiful 
prospects of hills and mountains. Some of the doors are very lofty, and are 
covered with iron plates studded with large nails. Our greatest desire, after 
our first walk about Fez, was to visit the two famous mosques of El-Carnin and 
Muley-Ednis; but as Christians are not permitted to put a foot in them, we 
were obliged to content ourselves with what we could see from the street, — 
the Mosaic doors, the arched courts, the long low aisles divided by a forest of 
columns and lighted by a dim mysterious light. It must not be imagined, 
however, that these mosques are now what they were in the time of their fame, 
since in the fifteenth century the celebrated historian Abd-er-Rhaman-ebu- 
Kaldun, describing that of El-Carnin (may God exalt it more and more, as 
he says), speaks of various ornaments that were no longer in existence in 
his time. The foundation of this enormous mosque was laid on the first 
Saturday of Ramadan, in the year 859 of Jesus Christ, at the expense of a 







INTERIOR OF A MOORISH MOSQUE. 



A CARAVAN JOURNEY TO FEZ. 55 

pious woman of Kairwan. It was at the beginning a small mosque of four 
naves; but, little by little, governors, emirs, and sultans embellished and 
enlarged it. Upon the point of the minaret built by the Imaun-Ahmed-ben 
Aby-Beker glittered a golden ball studded with pearls and precious stones, 
on which was represented the sword of Ednis-ebu-Ednis, the founder of Fez. 
On the interior walls were suspended talismans, which protected the mosque 
against rats, scorpions, and serpents. The Mirab, or niche, turned toward 
Mecca was so splendid that the Imaun had it painted white, that it might no 
longer distract the faithful from their prayers. There was a pulpit of ebony, 
inlaid with ivory and gems. There were two hundred and seventy columns, 
forming sixteen naves of twenty-one arches, in each ; fifteen great doors of 
entrance for the men, and two small ones for the women ; and seventeen hun- 
dred hanging lamps, which in the season of Ramadan consumed three quintals 
and a half of oil, — all which particulars the historian Kaldun relates with ex- 
clamations of wonder and delight, adding that the mosque could contain 
twenty-two thousand and seven hundred, and that the court alone had in its 
pavement fifty-two thousand bricks. * Glory to Allah, Lord of the world, 
immensely merciful, and king of the day of the last judgment ! ' " 

Quarters were assigned us at a caravansary ; but we were every- 
where looked upon with suspicion, and required an escort of soldiers 
whenever we moved abroad. An eventful day was that in which 
we saw the Sultan when he received the Italian ambassador. 

*' He was on horseback, followed by a throng of courtiers on foot, one of 
whom held over his head an immense parasol. At a few paces from the 
ambassador he stopped his horse; a portion of his suite closed the square, 
the rest grouped themselves about him. The master of ceremonies with knotty 
stick shouted in a loud voice, 'The ambassador from Italy!' The ambas- 
sador, accompanied by his interpreter, advanced with uncovered head. The 
Sultan said in Arabic, ' Welcome ! Welcome ! Welcome ! ' Then he asked if 
he had had a good journey, and if he were content with the service of the 
escort, and with the reception of the governors. But of all this we heard 
nothing; we were fascinated. The Sultan, whom our imagination had repre- 
sented to us under the aspect of a cruel and savage despot, was the handsomest 
and most charming young fellow that had ever excited the fancy of an 
odalisque. He is tall and slender, with large soft eyes, a fine aquiline nose, 
and his dark visage is of a perfect oval, encircled by a short black beard, — a 



56 THE KNOCKABOUT CLUB IN NORTH AFRICA, 

noble face, full of sadness and gentleness. A mantle of snowy whiteness fell 
from his head to his feet; his turban was covered by a tall hood; his feet were 
bare, except for yellow slippers and golden stirrups. All this whiteness and 
amplitude of grace and affability corresponded admirably with the expression 
of his face. The parasol, sign of command, which a courtier held a little 
inclined behind him, — a great, round parasol, three meters in height, lined 
with blue silk embroidered with gold, and covered on the outside with ama- 
ranth, topped by a great golden ball, — added to the dignity of his appearance. 
His graceful action, his smiling and pensive expression, his low voice, sweet 
and monotonous as the murmur of a stream, his whole person and manners, 
had something of ingenuous and feminine, and at the same time solemn, that 
inspired irresistible sympathy and profound respect. 

" This great curiosity was produced in part by the history of his dynasty. 
There was the wish to look in the face of one of that terrible family of the 
Scherifs Fileh, to whom history assigns pre-eminence in fanaticism, ferocity, 
and crime, over all the dynasties than have ever reigned in Morocco. At the 
beginning of the seventeenth century some inhabitants of Tafilet, a province 
of the empire on the confines of the desert, the Scherifs of which take the 
name of Fileli, brought from Morocco into their country a Scherif named 
Ali, a native of Jambo, and a descendant of Mahomet by Hassen, the second 
son of Ali and Fatima. The climate of the province of Tafilet, a little after 
his arrival, resumed a mildness that it had for some time lost; dates grew in 
great abundance. The merit was attributed to Ah; Ali was elected king under 
the name of Muley-Scherif ; his descendants gradually, by aid of their arms, 
extended the kingdom of their ancestor ; they took possession of Morocco and 
Fez, drove out the dynasty of the Saadini-Scherifs, and have reigned up to 
our day over the whole country comprised between the Muluia, the desert, and 
the sea. 

" Sidi-Mohammed, son of Muley-Scherif, reigned with wise clemency, 
but after him the throne was steeped in blood. El Reschid governed by 
terror, usurped the office of executioner, and lacerated with his own hands 
the breasts of women in order to force them to reveal the hiding-places of 
their husbands' treasure. Muley-Ismial, the luxurious prince, the lover of 
eight thousand women, father of twelve hundred sons, and founder of the fam- 
ous corps of black guards, was the gallant Sultan who asked in marriage of 
Louis XIV. the daughter of the Duchesse de la Valliere, and stuck ten thousand 
heads over the battlements of Morocco and Fez. Muley-Ahmed-el-Dehedi, 
avaricious and a debauchee, stole the jewels of his father's women, stupefied 
himself with wine, pulled out the teeth of his own wives, and cut off the head 







^ . .: — -^~^^^^*^"'^:^^^ -■'•■"'''' '^.'^"^A^'^— 



AN OFFICER OF THE MOORISH LEGATION. 



A CARAVAN JOURNEY TO FEZ. 



59 



of a slave who had pressed the tobacco too much down into his pipe. Muley- 
Abdallah, vanquished by the Berbers, cut the throats of the inhabitants of 
Mechinez to satisfy his rage, aided the executioner in decapitating the officers 
of his brave but vanquished army, and invented the horrible torture of cooking 
a man alive inside a disembowelled bull, that the two might purify together. 

" The best of the race appears to have been Sidi-Mohammed, his son, who 
surrounded himself with renegade Christians, tried to live at peace, and brought 
Morocco nearer to Europe. Then came Muley-Yezid, a cruel and violent 
fanatic, who in order to pay his soldiers gave them leave to sack and pillage 
the Hebrew quarters in all the cities of the empire; Muley-Hescham, who 
after a reign of a few days went into sanctuary to die; Muley-Soliman, who 
destroyed piracy, and made a show of friendship to Europe, but with artful 




FEATS OF HORSEMANSHIP. 



cunning separated Morocco from all civilized States, and caused to be brought 
to the foot of his throne the heads of all renegade Jews from whom had 
escaped a word of regret for their forced abjuration; Abd-er-Raman, the 
conqueror of Isly, who built up conspirators alive into the walls of Fez ; and 
finally, Sidi-Mohammed, the victor of Tetuan, who in order to inculcate respect 
and devotion in his people sent the heads of his enemies to the dicars and 
cities, stuck upon his soldiers' muskets. 

" Nor are these the worst calamities that afflicted the empire under the 
fatal dynasty of the Fileli. There are wars with Spain, Holland, Portugal, 
England, France, and the Turks of Algiers ; ferocious insurrections of Berbers, 
disastrous expeditions into the Soudan; revolts of fanatical tribes ; mutinies of 



6o THE KNOCKABOUT CLUB IN NORTH AFRICA, 

the black guard ; persecutions of the Christians ; furious wars of succession 
between father and son, uncle and nephew, brother and brother; the empire 
by turns dismembered and rejoined ; Sultans five times discrowned and five 
times reinstated ; unnatural vengeance of princes of the same blood, jealousies 
and horrid crimes, and monstrous suffering, and precipitate decline into antique 
barbarism ; and at all times one principle is triumphant, — that not being able 
to admit European civilization unless upon the ruins of the entire political and 
religious edifice of the Prophet, ignorance is the best bulwark of the empire, 
and barbarism an element necessary to its life." 



CHAPTER IV. 



MOROCCO AND THE MOORS. 



HE journey back to Tangier was without particular 
incident, except that the Doctor injured his leg 
in trying to mount a camel, and had to be very 
careful in guiding his horse over the rough road. 
We got many glimpses of Oriental life at Fez, 
and especially from the battlemented roof-top of 
the house in which we were domiciled. It is forbidden to strangers 
to behold the Moorish women except they are closely veiled; but 
now and then we had the privilege without the fair sex being 
aware of it. 



M 


Q 


H 


^^^rfi 


J^^^^b 



** Looking through those loop-holed windows, we seemed to see into an- 
other world. Upon the terraces far and near were many women, the greater 
part of them, judging by their dress, in easy circumstances, — ladies, if that 
title can be given to Moorish women. A few were seated upon the parapets, — 
some walking about, some jumping with the agility of squirrels from one terrace 
to the other, hiding, reappearing, and throwing water in one another's faces, 
laughing merrily. There were old women and young, and little girls of eight 
or ten, all dressed in the strangest garments, and of the most brilliant colors. 
Most of them had their hair falling over their shoulders, a red or green silk 
handkerchief tied round the head in a band, a sort of caftan of different colors, 
with wide sleeves, bound round the waist with blue or crimson sash; a velvet 
jacket open at the breast; wide trousers, yellow slippers, and large silver rings 
above the ankle. The slaves and children had nothing on but a chemise. One 
only of these ladies was near enough for us to see her features. She was a 
woman of about thirty, dressed in gala dress, and standing on a terrace a cat's 



64 



THE KNOCKABOUT CLUB IN NORTH AFRICA. 



jump below our own. She was looking down into a garden, leaning her head 
upon her hand. We looked at her with a glass. Heavens ! what a picture ! 
Eyes dark with antimony, cheeks painted red, throat painted white, nails stained 
with henna, she was a perfect painter's palette, but handsome, despite her 
thirty years, with a full face, almond-shaped eyes, languid, and veiled by long 











. - ^ ^^?:^' 



A SOLITARY TREE ON THE PLAIN. 



black lashes, the nose a little turned up, a small round mouth, as the Moorish 
poet says, like a ring, and a sylph-like figure whose soft and curving lines 
were shown by the thin texture of her dress. She seemed sad. Perhaps some 
fourth bride of fourteen had lately entered the harem and stolen her husband's 




A SCENE IN MOROCCO. 



MOROCCO AND THE MODUS. 



67 



caresses. From time to time she glanced at her hand, her arm, a tress of hair 
that fell over her bosom, and sighed^ The sound of our voices suddenly roused 
her. She looked up, saw that we were observing her, jumped over the parapet 
of the terrace with the dexterity of an acrobat, and vanished." 




ON THE COAST OF MOROCCO. 



The early age at which the Moorish children (for they are little 
more than children) marry surprised us. A Moorish mother and 
her daughter came into the court one day, and we greatly admired 
the childlike face and pretty manners of the little lady. We asked 
how old she was. " Twelve years old," the mother said. " She 
will soon be married," we remarked. " Che !'' exclaimed the mother, 
" she is too old to marry." We all thought she was joking. But 
she repeated, almost astonished at our incredulity, " I speak the 
truth ; look here at this one," and she pointed to a smaller child. 
" She will be ten in six months, and she has already been married 
one year." The child held down her head. We were still in- 
credulous. "What can I say?" continued the woman. "If you will 
not believe my word, do me the honor to come to my house on 



68 THE KNOCKABOUT CLUB IN NORTH AFRICA. 

Saturday, so that we may receive you worthily, and you will see 
the husband and the witnesses of the marriage." " Arid how old 
is the husband ? " I asked. " Ten years old, Signore." Seeing that 
we still doubted, the other women all asserted the same, adding 
that it is quite rare for a girl to marry after twelve years of age ; 
that the greater part of them are married at ten, many at eight, 
and some even at seven, to boys of about their own age; and that, 
naturally, while they are so young, they live with their parents, who 
continue to treat them like children, feed, clothe, and correct them, 
without the least regard to their marital dignity; but they are 
always together, and the wife is submissive to the husband. 

The absolute power of the Sultan over his subjects was well illus- 
trated by a scene an Englishman witnessed one day in the great 
market-place. It seems that two men had committed some political 
offence, and were sentenced to have their heads cut off. Thev 
were taken to the market-place, and a miserable wretch was hired 
to do the business. Just as he was about to begin (to quote from 
the Englishman) 

" An altercation broke out between the soldiers and the executioner about 
the reward promised for decapitation of the two poor creatures, who stood by and 
listened to the dispute over the blood-money. The executioner insisted, de- 
claring that he had been promised twenty francs a head, and must have forty 
for the two. The officer at last agreed, but with a very ill grace. Then the 
butcher seized one of the condemned men, already half dead with terror, threw 
him on the ground, kneeling on his chest, and put the knife to his throat. The 
Englishman turned away his face. He heard the sounds of a violent struggle. 
The executioner cried out, ' Give me another knife ; mine does not cut ! ' An- 
other knife was brought, and the head separated from the body. The soldiers 
cried in a faint voice, ' God prolong the life of our lord and master ! ' But 
many of them were, stupefied with terror. 

*' Then came another victim, a handsome and amiable-looking young man. 
Again they wrangled over his blood. The' officer, denying his promise, declar- 
ing he would give but twenty francs for both heads, the butcher was forced 
to yield. The condemned asked that his hands might be unbound. Being 



MOROCCO AND THE MOORS. 



69 




A RAPID GAIT. 



loosed, he took his cloak and gave it to the soldier who had unbound him, say- 
ing, ' Accept this ; we shall meet in a better world.' He threw his turban to 
another, who had been looking at him with compassion, and stepping to the 
place where lay the bloody corpse of his 
companion, he said in a clear, firm voice, 
' There is no God but God, and Mahomet is 
His prophet ! ' Then taking off his belt he 
gave it to the executioner, saying, 'Take it; 
but for the love of God cut my head off 
more quickly than you did my brother's.' 
He stretched himself on the earth in the 
blood, and the executioner kneeled upon his 
breast. * A reprieve, stop ! ' cried the Eng- 
lishman. A horseman came galloping to- 
ward them. The executioner held his knife 
suspended. ' It is only the governor's son/ 
said a soldier. ' He is coming to see the 
execution. Wait for him.' So it was in- 
deed. A few minutes after, two bleeding 
heads were held up by the soldiers. Then the gates of the city were opened, 
and there came forth a crowd of boys, who pursued the executioner for three 

miles, when he fell faint- 
ing to the ground, covered 
with wounds. The next 
day it was known that he 
had been shot by a rela- 
tive of one of the victims, 
and buried where he fell. 
The authorities of Tan- 
gier apparently did not 
trouble themselves about 
the matter, since the as- 
sassin came back into the 
city and remained unmo- 
lested. After having been 
exposed three days, the 
heads were sent to the 
Sultan, in order that his Imperial Majesty might recognize the promptitude 
with which his orders had been fulfilled. The soldiers who were carrying 




A MOORISH FESTIVAL. 



70 



THE KNOCKABOUT CLUB IN NORTH AFRICA. 



them met on their way a courier bearing a pardon, who had been detained by 
the sudden flooding of a river ! " 



'5=> 



It was in Morocco that we caught glimpses of the Bedouin 
Arab on his native plains. Like the Arab of Algiers, he has 
never changed his habits or his costume, presenting the same 
savage aspect and leading the same wild and roving life that his 
ancestors did. As in olden time, his hand is against every one, and 
everybody's hand is now and then turned against him. The Professor 
made a special study of the Arab as we went along, and the following 
is the result of his observations : — 

** Each hut or tent shelters an entire family. A group of huts is called a 
dechera, or hamlet; if composed of tents, it takes the name of douar. They 
wear the costume of the Berbers, and in addition, sometimes the haik, a long 
piece of very light cloth, first wrapped around the body, then brought around 
the head, where it is kept in place by a camel's-hair cord. On great occasions 
the horsemen wear horse-boots of red leather. 

" All the Arabs live in tents, and are nomads. Their food consists of coiis- 
cous, of wheat or barley, the various fruits, especially dates of the desert, of 
which they are extremely fond, mutton when they can get it, and milk. They 
are very frugal, and more temperate than other natives. The city dwellers 
have adopted a more complicated costume, consisting of bouffard trousers, a 
broad red belt of wool or silk, a closed waistcoat, and a jacket of cloth or silk; 
on the feet, shoes without heels, or with the quarters turned in ; on the head, 
two caps, one of cotton, the other of red wool, placed over the first ; over the 
shoulders a light bitrnous. The native women of the towns are often as light as 
European brunettes, losing the dark color they had in the country ; and this 
change is so marked that one would be likely to consider them a separate race. 
They lead a more comfortable life than the country-women, and even if they 
are deprived of the privilege of going out with uncovered faces, they find some 
compensation for this in dressing the more coquettishly. Their costume differs 
from that of the men only by its elegance ; the belt is more graceful, the jacket 
of richer material, the coarse shirt of the men replaced by a garment of gauze, 
and the scanty waistcoat forms a bodice open at the throat. The coifi"ure alone 
is entirely different; the hair is brought to the top of the head, and around it is 
twisted a fringed silk handkerchief. The young girls braid their hair into one 
long plait, and wear a sort of velvet cap adorned with sequins. Out of doors 



MOROCCO AND THE MOORS. 



72> 



the women wear a little veil which hides all the face below the eyes, while a 
large piece of cloth falls around the body, hiding its general shape. 

*• The most elegant houses differ little in furnishing from the tent; carpets, 
mats, and small mattresses serve as seats during the day and as beds at night. 
The jewels and gala dresses are piled up in trunks of native wood. Among the 
poor the meals are served on the ground ; among the rich on a copper tray, 
placed on a very low and small table. Everybody eats from the same dish, — 
the solid food with the fingers, the liquid with wooden spoons. The men are 
served first, while the women eat by themselves what is left. Politeness de- 
mands that the host, no matter what his* rank may be, should himself serve the 
guest; he first tastes the dishes before presenting them to him; he points out 
the best morsels to his guest, and if he hesitates to take them he puts them into 
his mouth. 




ARABIAN TRAVELLERS. 



** When the douar receives a distinguished guest, the repast is furnished by 
the whole community. The inhabitants of the douar then arrange themselves 
around the guest in a series of concentric circles, graduated by rank. Each 
dish, after having been tasted by the guest, is served successively to the differ- 
ent circles, and the bones, carefully gnawed, are finally given to the dogs, who 
are silently though expectantly watching proceedings, and form the outermost 
circle. All natives have an abiding faith in amulets as a means of preserving 
health. They are composed of small scraps of paper, on which are traced a 



74 



THE KNOCKABOUT CLUB IN NORTH AFRICA. 



few cabalistic signs and words from the Koran. The natives of the town are 
more given to ablution than the Arabs, the latter being extremely filthy. 

" The children of all the Algerian races are extremely precocious, and very 
intelligent, but their development is early arrested, and the intellectual faculties 
weaken rapidly. The inferior condition of the native women, which aids in the 

transmission by heredity of many faults, 
plays an important part in the tendency 
to degeneration. They never receive 
any intellectual culture. They rarely 
are acquainted with anything beyond 
their own douar, and their intelligence 
is rapidly consumed, from having to con- 
centrate itself on a restricted circle of 
vulgar ideas. The men never conde- 
scend to converse with the women, and 
no woman is allowed conversation with 
strangers. 

" For these aborigines human so- 
ciety reaches no farther than their own 
douar. They concentrate all their at- 
tention on their little world, which is 
well calculated to inspire in them a bru- 
tal egotism, and to give them a mean 
conception of humanity. Universal igno- 
rance prevails, except that every little 
community is likely to have its tkaleb, or 
scholar, learned enough to read a little 
of the Koran. The Moslem religion is far from being in a pure state in 
Algeria. There is no tribe but has its favorite saint, to the tomb of which the 
people repair constantly to pray. The body of the saint is sheltered by a 
domed chapel, called koubba, in the middle a catafalque covered with silk and 
brocaded stuffs, the walls hung with banners of silk and native ofTerings. 
Sometimes these koiibbas merely cover the spot where a saint has passed the 
night. The natives are very superstitious, and fear the evil eye, not only for 
themselves, but their cattle. The numerous idiots met with there are objects 
of great attention because they are supposed to be possessed of a devil whom it 
is prudent to propitiate." 




A SOLDIER OF MOROCCO. 



Says another observer : 



MOROCCO AND THE MOORS. 



75 



*' Seeing them eat, I understood how it was that the Moors could do without 
knives and forks. The neatness and dexterity, the precision with which they 
pulled chickens, mutton, game, and fish to pieces cannot be described. With 
a few rapid movements of the hands, without the least discomposure, each one 
took his exact portion. They seemed to have nails as sharp as razors. They 
dipped their fingers in the sauces, made balls of the cusciissa, ate salad by the 
handful, and not a morsel or crumb fell from the dish; and when they rose, 
we saw that their caftans were immaculate. Every now and then a servant 
carried round a basin and a towel; they gave themselves a wash, and then all 
together plunged their paws into the next dish. No one spoke, no one raised 
his eyes, no one seemed to notice that any one was looking on." 




A MOORISH BAND OF MUSIC 



The general costume of the Arabs is, first, a long shirt without 
a collar, descending to the middle of the leg, and with sleeves large 
as those on a surplice ; above this a kaik, made of silk or linen,- 
which envelops body and breast, and winds the head in five or 



76 THE KNOCKABOUT CLUB TN NORTH AFRICA. 

six folds, where it is retained in place by a white or brown cord 
of camels-hair. Outside of all this, sometimes, the Arabs and 
Moors of quality wear two or three burnouses. When an Arab is 
mourning the loss of a near relative, he never washes body or 
clothes for a long period. The nearer the relative deceased, the 
dirtier the Arab becomes. Our soldiers guarding the caravan were 
a trifle more cleanly than the wild Arabs, but by no means invit- 
ing; so that we welcomed with joy, one afternoon, the announce- 
ment that in the distance rose the minarets of Tangier. 



CHAPTER V. 



SOME TIME IN A PIRATE CITY. 




ANGIER again, at last. There we rested several 
days, and there we gathered up the fragmentary 
bits of information that we now weave into this 
story of our journeyings. The American consul 
was very friendly to us, and showed us a large col- 
lection of ancient arms and armor. At that time 
he was engaged in effecting the release of a lot of Jewish prisoners 
who had languished for many years in the common prison on charge 
of debt. We photographed the group, just as they were released, and 
a most miserable and emaciated crowd they were. One day, as we 
were passing the open door of a low but massive-walled building, — 
for doors are alw^ays open there, in that favored land w^here there is 
no winter, — we heard voices, loud and excited and angry. One voice, 
we were sure, was that of a countryman of ours, — an American, — 
and we instinctively halted. 

" You 're a confounded old blockhead ! " it said. " Have n't I been 
reasoning with you now these three hours, and have n't I been speak- 
ing so loud that my lungs are sore, and yet you won't understand.'^ 
I 'd give a hundred dollars, this instant, if I could find somebody 
speaking your outlandish lingo." 

It was enough to us that a human being stood in need of assistance, 
and we made bold to enter the doorway. 



THE KNOCKABOUT CLUB IN NORTH AFRICA. 

" I am at your service, sir," I said. " Do 
you need an interpreter ? " 

The speaker we had interrupted was a large, 
burly, whiskered mariner, clad in an irreproach- 
able suit of linen duck, and excitedly waving a 
veritable Panama in one hand, in front of a 
very red and heated face. In front of him stood 
the man at whom he had launched his heavy 
thunderbolts, — a slender, dark-featured Spaniard, 
with coal-black eyes and mustache, and with his 
shoulders elevated and hands spread in depre- 
catory protest at the captain's actions. There 
was an instant change in their respective po- 
sitions as I entered ; the Spaniard ran up 
to me and embraced me, telling me how 
much he would be obliged if I would 
explain things to this masterful ma- 
7'inaro ; while the large man ceased 
fanning himself with his hat, and 
looked at me in open-mouthed as- 
tonishment. Recovering' himself, 
he looked as though he would like 
to follow the impulsive Spaniard's 
example, and hug us all on the 
spot. But he compromised by 
seizing my hand and pressing it 
between his two brawny fists. It 
will not be reported what he began 
his greeting with, but it was suffi- 
ciently condemnatory of himself, by 
himself, to satisfy the most exact- 
ing martinet in marine etiquette. 

NATIVES OF MOROCCO. 




SOME TIME IN A PIRA TE CITY. 



79 



" Bless my heart, young man ! " he broke forth explosively ; 
" where in the name of Uncle Sam did you rain down from ? I 
did n't believe there was a man speaking my own tongue in this 
miserable city. If I had, perhaps I would n't have been so ha'sh 
about offering a hundred for an inter- 
preter ; but I '11 give it to you, just the 
same. It '11 be worth that to the owners of 
my vessel." 

" Oh, I don't want the money, and I 
shall feel very glad if I can help you in 
any trouble." 

" You can just do that, my young friend, 
rio-ht here. Don Mariano and I can't un- 
derstand anything about the manifest ; it 
might make a thousand dollars difference 
to me, — or to my owners, and that 's the 
same thing,- — and you've come just in the 
nick of time." 

It took above two hours to make every- 
thing satisfactory between the burly captain 
and Don Mariano, but this we eventually 
did. 

" Now," said the great-hearted captain, " come right aboard my ship, 
and I '11 take you fellows home. You 've been drifting about long 
enough, have n't you ? Come aboard, anyway, and stay while I 'm 
here. Yes, you must. I won't take no for an answer. Where 's your 
dunnage, anyway ? " 

As the captain would not " take no for an answer," we all gladly 
went aboard his ship, — a fine large barque at anchor in the bay. 
To our great joy we found that our new friend was bound for Algeria, 
for a port in Eastern Algiers known as Oran. The next day we were 
well under way along the African coast, speeding eastward. 




A MOOR. 



8o THE KNOCKABOUT CLUB IN NORTH AFRICA. 

A desire to get a glimpse of that portion of Africa whence Spain, 
in ancient times, had been invaded by fierce hordes that became 
civilized and rose to eminence under the genial clime of their adopted 
country, had taken us to Morocco. Now we were to leave it with 
hardly more than a hint of its treasures of antiquity. But the world 
is large; only the stay-at-home, absorbed in his garden or shop, is 




FEATS OF HORSEMANSHIP AT THE FETE OF MAHOMET. 

supremely satisfied with his surroundings. That he is right, I do not 
doubt. Blessed be the man whose aspirations are bounded by his farm 
or the four walls of his home ; thrice blessed he who has wife and 
little ones to share his lot ! But when a man has neither home nor 
family, why should he not turn himself loose upon the world } It 
cannot satisfy, but it can give him food for thought, — the wherewithal 
to fill unpleasant hours. 



SOME TIME IN A FIR A TE CITY, 8 1 

That home is the place for man, I do not doubt. Ever before him 
rises the mirage of a home, of a haven of rest, where his old age at 
least may be spent, and where he may gather about him the circle 
of his friends. But it is an ignis fatuus, it always keeps just ahead; 
he cannot rest ; the world, like a vigilant patrol, says to him, " Move 
on ; this*is no place for you." 

In vain the traveller expostulates: " It was not of my asking; had 
I my choice, I would be tilling soil to-day." But the world is in- 
exorable : " Move on, or off the stage." And so he goes, ever before 
him visions of a resting-place, until the friends he fain would have 
gathered round him are dead or estranged, and he halts not until 
he stumbles into his grave. 

But, pardon ; we did not intend to digress. Let us to our voyage. 

Late one afternoon we arrived opposite the sad and lonely 
settlement of Melilla, a frontier post in possession of the Spanish ; 
their only hold (I think, save Ceuta) upon any portion of Africa. 
Their once powerful settlements upon the African coast have 
dwindled to these pitiful towns, half of which are composed of 
forts and prisons. But the old fortifications are picturesque, over- 
hanging the sea with gray, time-buffeted walls. Beyond again, on 
an island, is a penal settlement, likewise Spanish, but at some dis- 
tance from the coast. 

Another morning, after quiet sailing, we arrived off Nemours, 
the westernmost port in the possession of the French in Africa. 
Fine views are afforded of the hills beyond, but the port itself 
is wretched, and the town consists apparently of a single street 
along the shore, hemmed in and frowned upon by barren hills. 
There is no sheltered harbor, and landing is precariously made 
in clumsy boats. Two immense rocks, called The Brothers, stand 
isolated at the entrance to the bay. Later on, we arrived oppo- 
site the harbor we were anxious to enter, just as the sun was 
setting, and the dusk enveloping all in haze. 



82 THE KNOCKABOUT CLUB IN NORTH AFRICA, 

We sailed in from the Caribbean, and past the headlands 
crowned by ancient forts. I cannot forget, as I look upon these 
fort-crowned hills, dim in the obscurity of night, that here was 
the first of the Spanish conquests that eventually extended Spanish 
power over Algiers, Tunis, and Tripoli. Cardinal Ximenes, in his 
famous expedition, commanded by Navarro, the skilled engineer of 
the Italian campaigns, captured these forts, slew four thousand 
Moors, and took great stores of plunder. It was such a holy 
war, and the chroniclers were so put to it for adequate descrip- 
tion, that they gravely relate that the sun stood still until the 
Cardinal gained his victory ! 

As the scenery, the immediate surroundings, of Oran ^d its 
history are interdependent, let us first glance at the latter, merely 
to assure ourselves that it has a history. About a thousand years 
ago, or, to be exact, in the year 902, two Moorish merchants from 
Spain came over here and stationed themselves for the purposes 
of trade. As there was (and is) a deep ravine, leading down to 
the sea, they gave their location the Arabic appellation Wahran, 
the Ravine. From this name comes Oran, by which it has been 
known in all modern times. The ancient pronunciation, however, 
still clings to the name, and Wahran it is called to this day. 
Its first civilized settlers were driven out in the year 909, and 
little more is known of it till about the middle of the twelfth 
century, when it was possessed by the Almoahides. After their 
overthrow, about the middle of the thirteenth century, Oran was 
annexed to the kingdom of Tlemcen, becoming the port of that 
beautiful capital in the desert, — that city of the saints and last 
resort of the Moors. 

About the time America was discovered (as we all know, or 
ought to know), the last stronghold of the Moors was taken from 
them, and the people, expelled from Spain, from Granada and 
the fertile vegas of Andalusia, flocked to Africa by thousands and 



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if 
III iiiiiii 



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SOME TIME IN A PIRATE CITY. 85 

tens of thousands. Many went to Morocco, doubtless landing at 
Tangier, but most of them came to Oran, settling here, and spread- 
ing hence over the interior of the country, and chiefly about Tlemcen. 
The last king of Granada, the unfortunate Moular-Ben-Hassan, fled 
hither when driven from the Alhambra and the last of his castles 
in Andalusia. About 1500, when the implacable Ferdinand the 
Catholic had wiped out the last vestige of Moorish possession 
in Spain, Wahran became quite a resort for pirates and corsairs, 
who deemed (and not without reason) the commerce of the so- 
called Christians a legitimate subject of prey. 

In the year 1505, the great (if not good) Cardinal Ximenes, 
not content with the extirpation of the Moors in Spain, and the 
burning and massacring of thousands of heretics by means of the 
holy Inquisition, persuaded Ferdinand to allow him to equip a force 
and a squadron for the subjugation of Oran. With the vigor char- 
acteristic of this great bigot, Ximenes supplied the funds for an 
expedition, under command of Diego de Cordova. This force suc- 
ceeded in capturing the strong fortress of Mars-el-Kebir, and four 
years later the great Cardinal himself led another expedition, which 
captured Oran, and the mountain fortress that dominated the port. 
As all those who fought in this holy war were granted indulgence 
from fast-days all the rest of their lives, the Cardinal did not 
lack for soldiers, many of whom needed no more indulgences on 
this earth, and doubtless soon found out the road to heaven, or 
hell, without the aid of the monk ; for the fortress was situated 
on a height impregnable, and they took it only after desperate 
fighting, and after covering the hillside with the slain. The suc- 
cessful Spaniards now had the pleasure of reducing the last 
Moorish stronghold to subjection, and of murdering many more 
thousands through the medium of the iniquitous Inquisition. 

The Spaniards gained no more than this, besides the treasure 
of the city, and the conversion of the mosques into churches. 



86 THE KNOCKABOUT CLUB IN NORTH AFRICA. 

Barbarossa the corsair, King of Algiers, attempted to capture Oran 
from the Spaniards in 1509, but was defeated with great slaughter. 
It was not until two centuries later, in 1708, that the Turks suc- 
ceeded in wresting Oran from the Spaniards. In 1732, the year 
that George Washington was born, the Spaniards celebrated this 
great event by once more taking town and castles from the fol- 
lowers of Mahomet. What they wanted it for, nobody knows ; but 
about that time the Spaniards were prone to take anything they 
could lay their hands on. They held Oran for sixty years, but 
in 1790 the Turks, aided by an earthquake that nearly destroyed 
town and fortress, forced the Spaniards to capitulate. A treaty 
was concluded in 1791, and in 1792 the Spaniards left the terri- 
tory, and have not returned since, except that thousands now come 
over annually from that poverty-stricken country across the Straits 
in search of labor and the means of sustenance. They form a 
very considerable part of the population, poorer even than the 
Arabs, dirtier than the French, and in some respects meaner than 
the Jews. For about forty years Oran was governed, "or misgov- 
erned, by the Beys of Algiers, until in 1830 the coming of the 
French dispossessed the last of that murderous brood, since which 
time the city has enjoyed a measure of peace, if not of prosperity. 

As to the attractions of Oran to the stranger, a great deal may 
depend upon the stranger. No part of the Mediterranean, perhaps, 
can exceed it in picturesqueness of environment. The town itself 
is built upon the steep northern slope of the hill Murdjadjo, the 
great ravine Wahran almost bisecting its upper portion, but filled 
in toward the sea, and covered with buildings. A thousand feet 
above the town rises the hill, crowned by the port of Santa Cruz ; 
a httle before i.t stands a Gothic chapel, crowned by a colossal 
statue of Notre Dame de la salud de Santa Cruz, said to be a 
replica of the Virgin of Notre Dame de la Garde, at Marseilles. 
The white figure, with its hands extended in perpetual benediction, 



SOME TIME IN A PIRATE CITY. Sj 

seems to extend its blessing to those who had performed the 
devout work of suppressing here the rehgion of Mahomet. But, 
as if to mock this endeavor of the Christians to commemorate the 
achievements of the followers of the cross, the Arabs have erected 
a tomb to their patron saint of Oran, Sidi-Kebir, on the crest of 
the ridge, several hundred feet above ; the white dome of this mara- 
bout is visible farther than the marble figure of the Virgin ; and 
in the town beneath, the great mosque* of the Moors is as vigorously 
protected by the government as the cathedral of the Catholics. 

One evening, an hour before sunset, I climbed the steep road 
that leads to the fortress of San Gregoin, a few hundred feet below 
the chapel, and then clambered over the steeps to the chapel and 
fort above. The ascent was so sharp that I could hardly maintain 
a foothold ; yet up this mountain, more than once, had mail-clad sol- 
diers dashed to the charge. I finally reached the fort, only to find 
the entrance barred, the structure deserted. It rose above me stern 
and frowning, without a projecting scarp or abutment by which one 
might lay hold and climb to its parapet; yet this same fortress had 
been twice taken by assault, — how, no one can now conceive. The 
only approach to it at all is along a knife-like crest which one might 
sit astride, and even then there seems but slight hold for scaling- 
ladders to be placed. How many must have perished ere the strong 
walls were taken ; every crimson rock must have been drenched in 
blood, and the entire crest • covered with the corpses of the slain. 
Beyond, across a deep gap in the ridge, there is a table-topped hill 
even higher, where, on the edge of the precipice, is the white tomb 
of Sidi-Kebir. From this point the fort could be bombarded, as it 
dominates it, and doubtless the troops of Ximenes brought cannon 
here and first opened a breach in the walls before they pressed on 
to carry it by assault. 

The view from chapel, fort, or tomb is most magnificent. To 
the north the far-sweeping horizon line of the Mediterranean, east, 



38 THE KNOCKABOUT CLUB IN NORTH AFRICA. 

the harbor, and beyond, a yellow coast crowned by the distant 
mountain of Kristel ; from the base of the hill stretches the town, 
with creamy walls and roofs of sunburnt tiles, its surface broken 
by dome and minarets and the towers of church and cathedral. 
At least eight forts, including the two on the hill, can be seen ; 
they guard every strategic point and thrust out their massive walls 
from every hill and angle of the wall. For this city is still sur- 
rounded by walls, with bastions and gates, and is guarded as in 
the time of the Turks and Moors. 

Beneath and toward the west is Mars-el-Kebir, where a project- 
ing promontory, some four miles from Oran, shelters a beautiful bay 
and quiet village. The point is strongly fortified. The fort of 
El Kebir, said to cover the site of one previously erected by the 
Romans, has undergone as many vicissitudes as that above Oran. 
It was taken by Cordova in 1505; in 1708 the Turks retook it 
and massacred its entire garrison, three hundred in number ; they 
lost it again in 1732, and again captured it in 1791, the last con- 
quest being by the French. Reminiscences of Spanish occupation 
are found here in the shape of the arms of Ferdinand over the 
fountain at the entrance, and on the shore of the bay toward 
Oran in some warm mineral baths known as Les Bains de la 
Reine, from the visit of Isabella early in the sixteenth century, with 
her infant daughter. An excellent road leads around the coast in 
this direction, leaving the fort beneath high cliffs, passing through 
a short tunnel, and all the way giving far-reaching views of the sea. 

The ravine and steep escarpment of the hill toward the town 
are thickly planted with pines so as to form a dense forest, in 
refreshing contrast to the denuded rocks around. Some of the trees 
are a foot in diameter, and all are carefully tended under the over- 
sight of the same wise Frenchmen who are looking to the future 
reclamation of these barren hillsides. By this means they have en- 
tirely changed the aspect of the scenery, and added a new element 



SOME TIME IN A PIRATE CITY. 9 1 

of beauty to the scene as one views it from the town or pubHc 
garden. Although the hills seem barren, yet they are covered, as 
are the plains, with flowers of every hue, that spread out sheets 
of color here, and nestle in sheltered places there, growing out of 
crevices in the rocks, and- in the nooks and crannies of the fort. 
Perhaps the best place whence to view the castle-crowned hill is 
from the terrace or garden rising above the port, and planted 
everywhere with, shrubs and flowers. Winding walks lead all about, 
and through the branches of pines and date-palms gleams the red 
hillside with its yellow-walled forts. Some of the terraces are cov- 
ered with a small vine bearing thick mats of flowers, and are per- 
fect sheets of purple bloom. Here also you look down upon the 
enclosed harbor, the scene of busy maritime life, where there are 
sometimes a dozen steamers moored, and where a tliick cluster of 
lateen-rigged vessels occupy the inner quarter of the mole. Rail- 
way tracks lead out to the main station, a mile beyond, and thence 
run to Algiers, to Tunis, and far into the border-land of the Great 
Desert. This port of Oran is at a time not far distant destined to 
be the great entrepot for an immense commerce with the vast in- 
terior of Africa, of the Soudan perhaps, certainly of Morocco. 

Crowning the hill whose slopes the gardens cover, rise the vast 
fortifications of the Kasba, where once the Bey resided, w^hich dates 
from a time anterior to the Spanish conquest, and which was sur- 
rendered to the great Ximenes Cisueros. The walls rise forty, fifty, 
in places perhaps one hundred feet, above the roadway ; they throw 
out buttresses, project ornate sentry-boxes, upon the steep ravines 
as well as directly upon the most thickly settled portion of the 
city. In fact, one can hardly turn a corner without coming upon 
a fortress wall, a stone tower, or some vestige of a demolished castle. 
Many of the houses are built into and out of these ancient walls; 
the city is full of ruins, and the suburbs are seamed with the lines 
of former military constructions. The scars of sieges and earth- 



92 THE KNOCKABOUT CLUB IN NORTH AFRICA. 

quakes are mostly covered with plasters of vegetation, as every 
available plot of earth supports a garden, overrunning with vines, 
fig-trees, and flowering plants. Here innumerable humble habita- 
tions nestle on the slopes of the ravines, where their residents cul- 
tivate assiduously the little garden spots, rich in vegetables of every 
kind, and without the sign of a weed within their precincts. 

An interesting place in the great ravine is the immense cov- 
ered establishment with open sides where the washerwomen of the 
city meet in great numbers. Water is free to all for the taking, 
and flows through the streets as well as through the irrigated fields 
and gardens. The pleasantest spot of all is the garden above 
the Place Republique, where one may sit in shade or sun, beneath 
the pines, and look down upon the busy life below. Steamers 
come and go, one for Marseilles, another for Algiers, another for 
Malaga, all within short gunshot of your garden-seat. 

The sun wheels slowly round and falls behind the western hill, 
lighting up the yellow coast and the dun hills beyond v^ith mist- 
gathering hollows and darkening slopes ; the triangular sails of the 
fishing-boats gleam white against the blue ; it quickly grows dusk 
and cool, the sound of labor ceases below, and the noise of travel 
comes only from the streets and promenades around the squares. 
Birds of bright plumage chirp among the trees; a great mass of 
purple-blossomed vines sends out heavy yet delicious odors; the 
lower walls of the Kasba are in gloom, the upper only bright in 
the last rays of the sun as it sinks finally behind the sharp crest 
of the cerro. It is dawn now, and the coolness of evening quickly 
causes one to retire from his seat beneath the pines. 

Of antiquities, Oran can boast little if anything antedating the 
Arab invasion ; but in its museum is shown a well-arranged col- 
lection of marbles and mosaics, mainly obtained from towns to the 
north. These are all Roman, and are but a few of the many 
remains of that people found scattered along the northern coast of 



SOME TIME IN A PIRA TE CITY. 



93 



Africa. Some of these mosaics cover a surface fifteen feet square, 
and are of very excellent workmanship. A description of them has 
been printed by the Society of Oran, and gives us an insight into 
a civilization of nearly fifteen centuries ago. Like the French, the 
Romans were good road-builders, and wherever they penetrated into 
Africa they left monuments of their work in the shape of roads, 
mile-stones, and aqueducts. 

I might mention a score of towns, modern French and Arab 
settlements, built on the sites of ancient Roman towns. I have 
mentioned the mosque. Its minaret, detached from the main struc- 
ture, is a conspicuous object in the centre of the town, and is beau- 
tifully ornamented with borders of tiles. The main entrance of the 
mosque is handsome, but is a restoration by a French artist, and 
lacks the charm of antiquity. All the mosques in Algiers are open 
to strangers on the simple condition that they take off their shoes, 
while the mosques of Morocco cannot be entered by a Christian 
unbeliever. In Oran, the Mahometans are most liberal, not even 
asking the stranger to remove his shoes, but giving him a pair of 
clogs into which he slips his feet and goes clattering over the floor. 





CHAPTER VI. 

A RAILROAD JOURNEY IN ALGIERS. 

I^^^^^^^^F anything be needed to illustrate French push and 
1^ progress, and the fitness of the French, after the 

Gauls, for successful colonizers, it is to be found 
in their manner of road and railway construction. 
The French are the Romans of to-day, in the way 
of road-making. From every seaport, from every 
important city, roads and railways ramify in every direction, and 
are all trending toward the great and mysterious interior region 
known as the Desert. But as they push farther and farther south- 
ward, the Great Desert vanishes before them, and is only heard 
when the locust clouds come up, and the scorching siroccos sweep 
along the plains. More than a thousand miles of railroad are now 
built in Algiers, or rather along the north coast of Africa. The 
various lines operate under different names, but all combine to 
form one vast system ; so that the traveller can enter Africa at 
Oran and journey clear to Tunis without breaking his journey 
oftener than he would desire for rest. And these roads are well 
built, stone ballasted, with massive viaducts and gentle gradients ; 
though the rolling stock consists of those hideous and abominable 
cars and wagons we see in France and Spain. The distance from 
Oran to Algiers (city) is 421 kilometers, and the first-class fare is 
48 francs ; from Algiers to Constantine, 464 kilometers ; from 
Constantine (or Kroubs) to Tunis, 450 kilometers, the whole dis- 



A RAILROAD JOURNEY IN ALGIERS. 95 

tance being 1335 kilometers, or about 850 miles. The various 
branch lines are constantly extending, creeping nearer and nearer 
the Desert country, so that no exact figures can be given ; but they 
will aggregate at least one hundred and fifty miles, making a full 
thousand constructed up to 1889. These branches extend from near 
Oran to Hemen, and to Mascara; from Philipville and Constantine 
to Batna, El Kantara, and Biskra; and one is projected from the Port 
of Bone and the main line to the Gulf of Cabes. 

Nowhere in the world, does it seem to me, is there such a mag- 
nificent opportunity for development and civilization as in Africa, 
and especially that portion now controlled by the French. The 
French, as colonizers, are better than the English to deal with bar- 
barous peoples. Before the Anglo-Saxons, barbarians and semi- 
civilized peoples melt away like snow before the sun. With the 
French, however, the case is different. They never exterminate, 
but assimilate. They certainly have very tough subjects in the 
stern and sullen Arabs, who hold themselves aloof, in lofty scorn 
of the Europeans ; but they have made some advance with the 
city-dwelling Moors, and even with the Jews and the Berbers. 
Negroes and Indians are the chosen peoples with whom the French 
readily amalgamate, choosing their dusky partners with greater 
regard to their sympathetic qualities than their beauty. The result- 
ant race, or sub-race, is certainly an improvement upon the original 
(barbarous) stock, as instance the mulattoes and octaroons of the 
West Indies, and the Canadian half-castes. But the nomadic Arab: 
the Frenchman glances at him askance; and as the follower of 
Mahomet has no attractive harem or fraction of a harem for the 
Frenchman's entertainment, the Gaul turns to and mauls him into 
submission. 

The French have moved along several lines of progression and 
conquest. They have steadily advanced, and held everything they 
have gained. 



96 



THE KNOCKABOUT CLUB IN NORTH AFRICA, 



Saying good-by to our noble friend the Captain, we started out 
from Oran on the early morning train, expecting to arrive at Algiers, 
the capital of Algeria, that night. We found the train crowded 
with excursionists, for the scientific men of all France had crowded 
down here to attend a meeting at Oran. They were true excur- 
sionists, nevertheless, and all eager to get their money's worth as 
they went along. 




TRAVELLING IN ALGERIA, 

At Affreville, where w^e halted for dinner, there was such a rush 
for the station as would have disgraced the worst and hungriest 
crowd in America. It resembled such a scramble as Dickens de- 
scribed when he drew upon his vivid imagination to adorn the 
facts. The few women in the crowd were last in the whirl of mad 
and excited Gauls who fought for seats in the dining-hall. That 
they did not get trampled upon and their lives jammed out of them 



A RAILROAD JOURNEY IN ALGIERS, 97 

was owing to the fact that they were Frenchwomen, and knew 
what brutes their lords and masters were ; hence they fought shy 
of the crowd and waited, picking up such crumbs as the hogs 
had left. 

The infrequent towns along the line, as they are generally at 
a distance from the railroad, much resemble each other, and hardly 
any one is of conspicuous interest, save for its history. Most of 
these towns are of recent growth, dating from since the French 
invasion. The remains of the Arabs consist chiefly of the Koubbas. 
or tombs of saints, which gleam white on the hill-crests, or adorn 
some swelling elevation of the plain. 

The history of this section refers us to the French, but beyond 
the French are the Arabs. " We shall not easily forget," says a 
recent writer, " the splendid comet of Arab civilization that has 
left such a trail of light behind it, but cannot help remarking that 
neither the Arab in a state of nature, nor the Moor surrounded by 
every refinement of luxury, seems to be influenced by the grace and 
beauty around him. And in this they do not stand alone ; for it 
is a notable fact that mere contact with what is beautiful in scenery 
or art is of itself of little worth. Nor does it lead to cleanliness, 
or godliness, or any other virtue. In Algiers we see the great tides 
of civilization, primitive and modern, — the East and the West, — 
meet and mingle without limit and without confusion. The in- 
dustries of the Moors are of the Middle Ages. They still have 
ancient looms, and still make the wonderful Saracenic locks, with 
their ponderous keys." Another writer notes that the Bedouins 
of the town are very different from the Nomads, who are tall and 
frank, with bronze complexion and long, quick stride. The equip- 
ment of a Berber, or Bedouin, consists of a long old percussion 
musket, two old pistols, and a yataghan, or Bedouin sword. The 
Arab woman, he says, has the same treatment as twelve hundred 
years ago. She is neither wife, mistress, nor companion. The 

7 



98 



THE KNOCKABOUT CLUB IN NORTH AFRICA. 



women prepare that peculiar food called the kuss-kuss from the 
wheat, and in its preparation are said to squirt water over it from 
their mouths. 

The Arab horseman wears but one spur, it is said, because he 
reasons that when one side of the horse is spurred the other must 
run. 

One thing I noted in Algiers, — that everybody there drank what 
he liked ; even the children imbibed ad lid. There was but one 

prerequisite, and that 
was that the child 
should at least be as 
big as the bottle. 

Among the scien- 
tific men I met on 
my journey was the 
well-known geogra- 
pher Elisie Reclus, 
who speaks English 
with fluency, having 
lived in New Orleans. 
Now and then our 
conversation would 
remind me of my French landlady in the West Indies. She was 
an English student, and to show her proficiency w^ould frequently 
write me Uttle notes, as for instance : " Do write everything which 
you will," and " He is alone now, but when you go more he happy 
to come with you." 

We kept on until late in the afternoon, and then the country 
was blotted out by the sinking of the sun. 

The distance from Oran to Algiers was 421 kilometers, or about 
two hundred miles, and we covered the distance with little fatigue, 
and saw much of interest by the way. During the journey, in the 




MOSQUE OF SIDI ABD-ER-RAHHMANN. 




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AN ALGERIAN BEAUTY 



A RAILROAD JOURNEY IN. ALGIERS. lOI 

monotonous places, the Doctor beguiled the hours away by telling 
stories, and one of these, about a certain doubtful character he once 
met in the West Indies, we repeat here. Let him tell it in his 
own words : — 

MR. HOOPER AND HIS OLLAPOD. 

My acquaintance with Mr. Thomas Hooper began on a slow-going steamer 
bound for Cuba and Mexico. It was in the exciting times of the first railway 
ventures. Every steamer going Mexico-ward was loaded to the full Avith engi- 
neers from every part of the world, — England, Germany, and South America, 

— but a large majority fresh from the schools of the United States. They were 
just starting out in life, and most of them were well endowed with funds, 
furnished by fond parents and relatives who were anxious they should carve 
out for themselves great careers in a foreign land. I do not consider it irrele- 
vant to remark that I met the last one of them four years later, and he was 
inquiring of his fellow-Americans for money enough to pay his passage back 
to the States. All of them had failed in the carving of careers. 

Mr. Hooper, as I intended to say, was passenger on our steamer. He was 
not an engineer, in the strictest sense of the word, nor merely a pleasure tourist. 
No one, indeed, knew why he was going to Mexico, though it was finally sur- 
mised that he was interested in mines, and this surmise became something 
more, until it was at last told as a positive fact that Mr. Hooper was owner of 
"vast deposits of the precious metal" somewhere in the interior of Mexico. 
To such as inquired of him as to the truth of these rumors, he would wink 
confidentially, and intimate that he knew a thing or two more than rumor did; 
then he would invariably order duplicate cocktails for two, and, the while they 
disappeared, gradually impart the details of a mining scheme that would set his 
hearer wild with a desire to be a participant in its risks and profits. Half our 
company had lost their senses — and a few of them something more substantial 

— over Hooper's glorious scheme before we had reached Havana, only four 
days out from New York. The strangest thing about it was, that no one 
seemed to know Hooper when he came aboard, and all our information of that 
individual had been acquired from that individual himself. Yet the impres- 
sion had crept abroad that he was not only very wealthy, but that he pos- 
sessed that Midas touch which converted alT he handled into golden treasure. 
Personally, he was not particularly attractive; his hair had the unassuming 
hue of an unburnt brick, his nose was rendered hopelessly obscure by blotches 



I02 THE KNOCKABOUT CLUB IN NORTH AFRICA. 

of freckles, while his eyes, where they were not yellow, were apparently as 
freckled as his nose. But he was good-natured all the day long, and the feats 
he performed with his firearms were so wonderful as to excite the admiration 
of all beholders. It was a favorite pastime with him to knock a " nickel " off 
the rail from across the deck ; and this was invariably accomplished every 
morning, whether the steamer was gliding smoothly along or pitching wildly 
about in the short waves of the gulf. 

And his good humor was only equalled by his sangfroid; for you might 
wake him out of a sound sleep at any time of night and he would open his eyes 
as bright as a dollar, and drawl out in his peculiar tone, '' I know you 're wrong, 
but I'm wid ye; drive on with the. corpse! " He was lying asleep under the 
rail one day, when it occurred to a passenger that it would be a fine thing to 
tickle his ear with a straw. He lay on his back, with his mouth open to the 
sky ; a fly crawling on his nose made no impression on him ; he was evidently 
fast asleep. One hand was in the pocket of his blouse, the other hung toward 
the deck. As the passenger approached with his straw, an eager crowd gath- 
ered about to see the fun. ** Bet five dollars he '11 tickle him off the bench," 
whispered one of the group, as the straw approached his ear. There was a 
muffled click in the pocket that held the hand, and some one cried out, *' Take 
care ! he 's going to shoot ! " As the crowd dispersed, the voice of Hooper 
drawled out: '' I '11 take that V, if you please." He claimed the bet and got 
it, and his person was thenceforward as sacred as that of the Grand Lama. 

It was a day or two before we landed at Vera Cruz that whispers were in- 
terchanged regarding the mysterious character of an invention of Hooper's 
which but a few of the passengers had investigated, — the OUapod. Even 
those who were thought to have seen it preserved the secret so well that 
nothing material was elicited by all our questioning; but it was noticed that 
a certain number of the male passengers — generally those who were most 
expert players of poker and other national games — retired to the captain's 
cabin late in the evening, whence some of them had been seen to emerge the 
following morning by such of our company as rose early in order to see the 
sun rise and the decks washed. But most of us landed at the " ancient city" 
little the wiser regarding the OUapod. Two of our company, — two young 
engineers, — who started out fullest of confidence and cash, lingered behind as 
the rest of us were rowed to the mole, and it was given out that they were 
"strapped " and obliged to return to New York in the same steamer that 
brought them out. They were observed to cast black looks at the smiling 
Hooper as he bade them adieu with his customary effusion of speech, and 
one of them — his name was Cooney — cursed him to his face, and swore 



t\- 







AN ALGERIAN ANTELOPE-HUNTER. 



A RAILROAD JOURNEY IN ALGIERS. IO5 

he would expose the Ollapod to the New York pohce. " All right," said 
Hooper, cheerfully, "you can say you've seen it; but," lowering his voice 
ominously, " you '11 have to admit that you had a hand at the game." 

The reception that was given Hooper by the American residents of Mexico, 
upon his arrival at the capital, was in truth an ovation. It was told afterward 
that the carriages, the musicos, and the enthusiastic brethren that went down 
to welcome him, were paid for doing so out of Hooper's own pocket. But 
he silenced the dissatisfied by giving a select spread at the Cafe Concordia, 
at which he explained to us several new schemes on hand by which he would 
extract tons and tons of precious metal from the bowels of mother earth ; and 
the Mexican papers contained full accounts of the enthusiastic reception ac- 
corded the generous young Americano, el Senor Don Tomaso Hoopero, who 
had come down to Mexico to expend millions of dollars in exploring its 
undeveloped resources. His mines, they understood, were already in bonanza, 
and a company was being formed for the further working of them. " Fortu- 
nate, indeed, the individual who could secure shares in the company of Don 
Tomaso I " 

To the Mexican editor the unfound and consequently undeveloped re- 
sources of Mexico are vast, beyond the comprehension of man ; they are 
destined to enrich millions ! But no Mexican in recent years has ever attempted 
to find them, save through the aid of foreign capital. 

But the working of mines — on paper — did not comprise all the strings 
to Don Tomaso's bow. About that time vague reports crept out anent the 
great *' Anglo- Americano-Mexicano lottery of Kentucky," of which Don 
Tomaso was agent. Certain young men, friends of his, were displaying more 
money than had been their wont, and it did not take long for the public to 
trace the silver stream to its source. Groups of excited Mexicans gathered 
on the corners as Don Tomaso passed, and he was pointed out by everybody 
in the plaza. He was then in the zenith of his glory, and his costume was 
ultra Mexican, — sombrero big as an Englishman's tub and loaded with shining 
silver, leather jacket richly embroidered, pantaloons decked with rows of silver 
buttons, heels armed with enormous spurs that clanked threateningly as he 
strode along, while his revolver was the biggest and shiniest of the hundreds 
that depended from the belts of gorgeous caballeros. And as his reputation 
as a dead shot had been spread abroad, he received the most deferential treat- 
ment from the Mexicanos, who carry their shooting-irons more for ornament 
than use. 

Don Tomaso had no regular office, as the law prohibited a foreign lottery 
from absorbing the cash of residents, it being needed for home affairs of similar 



I06 THE KNOCKABOUT CLUB IN NORTH AFRICA. 

description. But his room at the hotel was filled with young men night and 
day, chiefly Mexicans of good families, wide-awake, eager-looking fellows, who 
regarded Hooper as an exceedingly valuable acquaintance, and who confided 
to his care hundreds of pesos for investment in the A.-A.-Mexicano. For it 
was a curious feature of the workings of this lottery, that nearly every ticket 
drev/ a prize ; that is, every one Hooper had sold on his previous visit, the 
money for which, awarded at the last grand drawing, he had now brought with 
him. Nearly every American you met would corner you and ask excitedly 
if you had invested in Hooper's latest scheme, at the same time telling of his 
good luck in drawing a prize of fifty dollars or one hundred dollars. A few 
Mexicans had also been equally fortunate ; and they and their friends trooped 
to his room by dozens, all eager to invest their last real, and sanguine that 
at last they had found a lottery conducted with a due regard for the interests 
of the investor. During the month of his stay Hooper managed to gather to 
himself most of the loose silver of his friends, and then set "out again for the 
*' States," leaving every one of them confident that his ticket would draw the 
grand prize of ten thousand dollars. So thoroughly were they convinced of 
this, that they combined their scanty leavings and gave him a grand banquet 
on the evening preceding his departure, which manifestation of confidence 
was duly reported in the morning papers, and placed on file by the sagacious 
Don Tomaso for future use. Some unforeseen accident must have delayed the 
" grand distribution," for Hooper never returned to disburse; at least, I found 
some of his investors waiting for him three years afterward. 

It was two years after the Mexican episode that I again met Seiior Hooper, 
in a broker's office on Broadway, at the time when excitement over the Grant 
and Ward afi"air was at white heat. He was then stopping at a hotel on Fifth 
Avenue, to mention which would betray Hooper at once, for he was known to 
everybody there, from bell-boy to proprietor. He had married since our last 
meeting, and nothing would do but I must post up with him and see his wife. 
Then I learned that he had just returned from South America, and was on the 
eve of departure for Africa. When questioned, he reluctantly admitted that he 
had been, and was going, in the interests of an English syndicate in the rubber 
business ; that he had spotted all the likely places along the Amazon and 
the Congo, and was going out to secure the last stick of caoutchouc for the 
syndicate. With still greater reluctance he " allowed " that he had taken the 
Ollapod along with him, and that the South Americans had derived great bene- 
fit from the workings, having read the notices of his grand reception in the 
Mexican papers. 

" And now we 're going to the Congo, me and Virginny here, and if you '11 



A RAILROAD JOURNEY IN ALGIERS. IO7 

just go along, we '11 make an everlasting fortune. Wha-at? Yes, we '11 take the 
Ollapod, and you can write an account of the trip, and we'll sell the Ollapod 
and book together. Fact, every native will want an Ollapod, and book thrown 
in, for five dollars; that's the price, — five dohars for small size, twenty-five 
dollars for a big one. What is the Ollapod? Wha-at? Ain't you seen one 
yet? Wa-al if our'n wa'n't all packed I'd tell you in about a minute. It's 
just the darndest contrivance you ever did see! Big as a clock? Yes, some 
of 'em is, and some is n't. You see, I have 'em to suit all complexions ; some 
of 'em's the size of a watch, and some ain't. Describe it? Certainly, jest as 
lives as not. In the first place, it 's a board, painted off in different colors, 
chiefly red and black; then it has a representation of everything you want 
to know ; for instance, there 's the world, painted out large as life, and inside 
the circle is the diameter of the globe, distance from the sun, et cetery^ and so 
forth, then there 's the sun, hits diameter and circumference ; then there 's all 
the biggest cities on the globe, — London, four million population; New York, 
fifteen hundred thousand population, went Democratic last 'lection, etc. In 
fact, there ain't anything you want to know that ain't there. What 's the use 
of it? Why, it's better 'n a g'ography, a plum sight; and then, again, I 
sometimes use it to kill time with. You see, there 's a neat arrangement, so 
that if you roll a ball — which goes with the Ollapod — in a certain -direction 
it 's sure to strike the earth, or the sun, or the largest city, etc. And the man 
that bets on the sun, why, he takes the pot; and, — well, now, you see how 
'tis yourself; they generally buck agin the table, — that's me, and — they 
generally git left! Them Mexican fellers? Oh, yes; you see they nearly 
always bet on the sun, and then the board would happen to be canted toward 
the moon, and vice versy. Policemen ever seen it? Bless your soul, yes, sir, 
heaps of times; but what right have they to interfere in a historico-geographical 
game like the Ollapod? No right at all. Yes, sir; I 'm going up the Congo 
after rubber, and I shall take the Ollapod along to give the niggers a lesson 
in g'ography." 

The Professor, who is nothing if not practical or statistical, then 
gave us some information about the country we were travelling 
in, — Algeria. It extends along the coast about five hundred and 
fifty miles, and stretches inland three hundred and fifty miles and 
more, lying between 2° 10' west and 8° 50' east longitude, and 32'' 
to 37° north latitude. It is divided into two distinct regions, — the 



io8 



THE KNOCKABOUT CLUB IN NORTH AFRICA. 



Tell and the Sahara; the former the land of corn, and fertile, the 
latter the desert country. The Sahara is divided into mountainous, 
sandy, and oasis regions, the coldest month being January and the 
hottest August. The railroad line runs a great distance through 
the Metidja, — the plain of great fertility that lies between the Atlas 
foot-hills and the Sahel. Tall eucalyptus-trees at times line the 
track and are seen in many groves. 








'X'M A, 'MKIK^ji^Bi^^fiSSmWi^^il^^^^i^^l'f'^^ 








''^^#s>^5te^i^ 



m^^'^:m^m^^^^ 



r- vr^^CLf^^?^^;^ v; 



y tyi^'24'*-' V 



MOSQUE OF SIDI SALAHH, AT OUARGLA. 



Tree-planting on a vast scale has been undertaken here in 
xAilgiers, and with the most beneficial results. Where formerly was 
sun-scorched desert, a sterile hillside-, a damp miasmatic swamp-land, 
the beneficent eucalypti spread their Hmbs, filling the air with bal- 



A RAILROAD JOURNEY IN ALGIERS. 



109 



samic odors in place of miasm, and giving shade and fertility, in 
conjunction with judicious drainage and artesian wells. The town 
of Boufarik is an example of what European energy can accomplish 
in Africa, with its stream-bordered streets, shaded avenues and 
squares, where was once a swamp so malarious that the first set- 
tlers died like sheep. The native trees of value here in Algiers 
are the cork-tree, cedar, ilex, aleppo, and maritime pine, the olive, 
fig, citrus family, and palms. But of all trees, the AustraHan gum- 




AN OASIS OF THE ALGERIAN SAHARA. 



trees, the eucalypti, are the most valuable in the reboisement of 
Algiers. That it is the determined purpose of the French to 
re-forest this north coast of Africa is a fact that commands the 
approbation of the world. 

The Metidja is estimated to contain five hundred thousand acres 
of land, one half of which is susceptible of being cultivated with suc- 
cess, by the aid of irrigation, by means of artesian wells and bar- 
rages, or reservoirs. The cereals flourish here, but in small fruits 



no THE KNOCKABOUT CLUB IN NORTH AFRICA. 

and vegetables Algeria excels. Figs, oranges, olives, and especially 
grapes find here a favorable soil and climate. The figs prefer the 
mountain-sides and hills, the oranges the coast ; the vineyards, the 
hope of the country, are chiefly on the seaside hills. The date — 
that fruit and salvation of the desert — is not found in its perfection 
along the coast. 

But I must not let these side glimpses of African agriculture 
divert us from the beaten track. The fact is, though, that the 
possibilities of Algeria seem to m"e so great, — guarding as it does 
the avenue of approach to the mysterious continent, — that I am con- 
stantly forced into speculation upon its resources, and the fate of 
the people engaged in working out the problem of the re-conquest 
of Africa by Europeans. The French have gone about it in an 
intelligent way. They mean to create here a New France, and I 
think they will succeed. It is now fifty-eight years since they landed 
their troops here, and they have had time at least to declare their 
intentions, if not to effect a conquest of the native tribes and the 
forces of Nature. 

I, for one, am thankful that the French came into Africa, and 
hope they will extend their roads and railways until the Great Desert 
is crossed, and we can reach Senegal and the mysterious Beyond. 

In due time we reached Algiers; but before we proceed to 
describe that capital of Algeria, allow me to describe a side-journey 
we took to the sacred tombs of Blidah and the holy city of Tlemcen. 




CHAPTER VIL 

ARAB TOMBS AND ARAB CITIES. 

PASSPORT is not necessary in Algiers ; but you 
are required at the hotels to give those little items 
of information about yourself that the police prize 
so highly. Then, you are free to go and come at 
your leisure. Of the various excursions in the 
neighborhood of the city, that to Blidah and the 
gorge of Chiffa is the most often recommended. At the former 
place is wild and rugged scenery, great rocks, and running streams, 
and troops of wild monkeys that sometimes show themselves to 
tourists. The trip to Blidah I took on my way to Oran ; as to its 
attractions, let the following lines be placed in testimony. The 
railway service here, though European, is tolerably good; the trains 
depart and arrive on time, arid there are rarely any accidents of 
note. The line first skirts the beautiful bay, and then, at ten kilo- 
meters distance from the city, turns to the southwest and enters 
the Metidja. 

In due season we reached Blidah, a town of eight thousand 
inhabitants, fifty kilometers from Algiers. It lies at the base of 
the Atlas range, with the Metidja spread below to the Sahel beyond. 
An omnibus carried me to the Hotel Geronde, where I found a 
neat room, a cool inner court overhung with vines, and meals with 
excellent service. One good thing the French have done, — they 
have carried everywhere, into every village and hamlet, their ex- 



112 THE KNOCKABOUT CLUB IN NORTH AFRICA. 

cellent cuisine ; their neatness and thrift always commend them to 
the tired and thirsty traveller. 

It did not take me long to see the town, for its attractions are 
few, though unique, and after lunch I sallied forth with my camera. 
The inevitable Arab went along with me, and conducted me first 
to the sacred grove of olive-trees. 

Though there are many groves and gardens here, the finest is the 
Bois Sacre, — the sacred grove of olives, — in the suburbs of the town. 
They are sacred because they contain and shelter the koubbas^ or 
mosque-like tombs of some holy marabouts, or Arab saints. They 
are indeed beautiful, these white and marble-like structures with 
domed roofs, and the giant olives, hung with trailing mosses, rise 
above and enclose them in a twilight-gloom that is conducive to 
thoughts of worship. Now and then the sun strikes through the 
canopy of foliage, and draws a tracery of leaf and limb upon the 
marbled surface of the tombs, painting these fleeting pictures all 
day long. Silent Arabs glide stealthily away, emerging from the 
gloom, pausing a moment to pray, perhaps, then disappearing again 
without a sound. 

I tried in vain to induce some of these Arabs, hooded in their 
white burnouses, to pose at the tomb a moment ; they all indig- 
nantly refused. At last my guide consented to don a burnous and 
sit upon an olive-stump in a devotional attitude, while I secured 
his image with my camera. 

These koubbas, though so delightfully situated, are not the holiest 
of Blidah, for there are others above, up the ravine, that exceed 
them in sanctity. With my guide, I walked along the river-bank 
some two miles, up a gorge that seemed to penetrate to the heart 
of Atlas. There we found an Arab cemetery, with many quaint 
headstones, and two large tombs held in peculiar v'eneration. The 
oldest is over three hundred years old, and covers the remains of 
Sidi Ahmed el Kebir, a marabout of great sanctity. 



ARAB TOMBS AND ARAB CITIES. 



I I 



More attractive to me than the tombs were the cavalry barracks, 
where is the finest stud of Arabian stallions (it is said) in the world. 
Permission was given me to view these magnificent animals, and a 
soldier went the rounds with me, while my guide was obliged to 
remain at the gate. My soldier-guide was polite and attentive, but 
did not disdain the silver I offered him; in truth, it slipped into 
his pocket in a way that seemed to suggest the filling of a long- 
felt want. 




THE MOORISH METHOD OF PLOUGHING. 



Blidah, though pleasant enough, with its orange-groves and run- 
ning streams, could not detain me more than a night, for there was 
a city in the desert toward which my journey trended. 

Nobody seemed to know where Tlemcen was, when I made In- 
quiry at Oran, but at last I was told to go to Ain Temouchent 
by rail, and there take diligence. This I did, reaching AIn Te- 
mouchent about dusk. I then found that a diligence started at 
midnight and another early in the morning. Finding a little posada, 
or inn, here, kept by a jolly old Frenchman, who was delighted to 



I 14 THE KNOCKABOUT CLUB IN NORTH AFRICA. 

find that I came from America and that I spoke Spanish, I engaged 
a room and meals. The morning diligence started on time, and 
I started with it, having a seat beside the driver, which com- 
manded views of the surrounding country. Of the first half of 
our journey I remember little more than that the roads were ex- 
cellent and the scenery uninteresting. To maintain this highway 
to Tlemcen in perfect state, the road-menders are stationed at 
intervals, who fill the ruts with broken rock, and lay out long 
beds of this material, which the diligence is obliged to drive over 
because large rocks are laid across the smooth portion of the road. 
Our course, consequently, was a very sinuous one, as the driver 
had to veer from side to side to avoid the lines of rocks. Now 
and then we ran over a rock, receiving thereby a great jolt, and 
■extorting a volley of curses from the inside passengers. Our driver, 
a short, sturdy Gaul in blue cotton blouse, was the hardest-worked 
man I saw in Algiers, for he was constantly lashing our mules, and 
shouting at them. 

The first distinct image I had of an approach to the desert 
region was of a group of Arab tents and a drove of camels. 
The camels were ranging the barren pasture-land, and seemed as 
much at home as cows in a field of clover. I had seen, of course, 
many camels in menageries, but they never impressed me as those 
free camels in their native wilds. Their appearance indicated that 
the great desert country was not far away ; yet the road we were 
traversing was as smooth as ever, and the driver of mules did not 
relax his efforts to put us into Tlemcen on time. Along in the 
afternoon we climbed the outermost brim of the valley in which 
Tlemcen is situated, and saw it before us, a fair city of mosques 
and minarets, rising from leafy gardens. Of course our driver had 
reserved his greatest efforts for the final spurt, and we clattered 
into the city in a cloud of dust, and rolled up to the bureau 
de posie in a perfect halo of glory. 




^^\ 



A YOUNG MOOR. 



ARAB TOMBS AND ARAB CITIES. 



117 



I was pounced upon by two Arab boys, immediately after I 
alighted, arid led off to look at a fine room a lady friend of theirs 
had for rent. But this belle chambre I found dark and dingy, and 
though the woman seemed very much in need of money, I did not 
consider it my duty to incommode myself 
for her advantage. So I was led around 
to the Hotel de la Paix, and there in- 
stalled at ten francs per day. As my | 
stay was to be limited, I bargained with 
a guide, that very night, to conduct me 
through Tlemcen on the morrow. His 
name was Mahomet, and he may have 
been as virtuous as his great namesake, 
but I doubt it. He wore baggy breeches, 
which were continually wobbling from side 
to side, a short Turkish jacket, a red fez, 
and Turkish slippers, with his calves and 
ankles bare. He was my guide through 
the city. 

And what is Tlemcen, that I should 
take the trouble to seek it out ? Tlem- 
cen is unique. It is a Moorish or Arab 
city, of ancient date, and with architec- 
tural monuments that remind one of the 
Alhambra. 




A MOORISH GENERAL. 



As I came into Algiers in order to 



acquaint myself with the Moorish architecture and Moorish customs, 
merely as an introductory to the Arabic architecture of Spain, I 
sought out Tlemcen as containing the highest expression of the art. 
Tlemcen, in Roman days, was known as Pomaria, from its gardens 
of fruit-trees. 

It was just about eleven hundred years ago that the Arab city 



Il8 THE KNOCKABOUT CLUB IN NORTH AFRICA. 

was founded here, upon the ruins of what the Vandals had left. 
During four hundred years Tlemcen (which included a double town 
known as Aghadir and Tagrart) enjoyed great prosperity. It was 
one of the most innportant of the Moslem cities of the Occidenti 
It was a great commercial centre, and contained at one time, it is 
estimated, five thousand Christians, — Genoese, Catalan, and Venetian 
•merchants, who occupied a portion of the city by themselves, known 
as the Kissaria. The city will be found to be surrounded with 
several lines of fortifications, not only for the defence of the city itself 
but for its investment, for it has been many times besieged, and also 
taken. In 1553 it was taken by the accursed Turks, and from that 
period dates its decay. From a literary and commercial centre, radiant 
with enlightening influences, it sank into nothingness. The French 
captured the place in 1836, but surrendered it to Abd-el-Kader in 
1839, whose capital it was until 1842, when the French repossessed 
themselves of it, and it has remained in their power ever since. 

Let us see, now, if Tlemcen has within its ruined walls enough 
of interest to warrant this long journey. Mahomet came for me 
early in the morning, and we started out in the delicious cool- 
ness upon our tour of inspection. 

First, of course, Mahomet, being a good Mahometan, conducted 
me to the mosque, — the great mosque Djamaa-el-Kebir, in the 
place d'Alger. It is not notable above even the mosque in the 
city of Algiers, though its court is paved with Algerian onyx, and 
the basin of its fountain is of the same. It has seventy-two square 
columns and a beautiful mihrab, or prayer-niche, ornamented with 
arabesques. The minaret is about one hundred feet high, and from 
its cupola I got a view of the city that rewarded me for all the 
pains of the journey. The mosque dates from 11 36, though built 
upon a foundation from the year 790. 

" Tlemcen," wrote an Arab author of the fifteenth century, " is a 
city enjoying a pleasant climate and a fertile soil. Built on the 



ARAB TOMBS AND ARAB CIITES. 



119 



side of a mountain, it reminds one of a fair young bride reposing 
in beauty on her nuptial couch. The bright foliage which over- 
shadows the white roofs is Hke a green coronal encircling her 
majestic brow. The surrounding heights and the plain stretching 
below the town are made verdant by running streams. Tlemcen 
is a city that fascinates the mind and seduces tlie heart." 

It was once the queen of Morocco ; now it is severed from 
its ancient territory and belongs to the Gauls. 

France controls now the northern coast of Africa, and doubtless, 
if the genius of the people may prevail, will some day possess as 
wide a realm as the poet describes : — 

" Where the stupendous Mountains of the Moon 
Cast their broad shadows o'er the realms of noon, 
From rude Caffraria, where the giraffes browse 
With stately heads among the forest boughs, 
To Atlas, where Numidian lions glow 
With torrid fire beneath eternal snow ; 
From Nubian hills, that hail the dawning day, 
To Guinea's coast, where evening fades away; 
k. Regions immense, unsearchable, unknown, 

Bask in the splendor of the solar zone, — 
A world of wonders, where creation seems 
No more the works of Nature, but her dreams." 

Another mosque may be found within the walls, though it is now 
used as a schoolroom. This is the Mosque of Sidi Ahmed Bel 
Hassan el Ghomari, and its inihrab is decorated with arabesque most 
beautiful and fanciful. I do not think I have seen better examples 
of airy tracery even in the Alhambra. The schoolmaster was away, 
but the door of the mosque was open ; so Mahomet and I marched 
in, and I pitched my camera and took a photograph of the mihrab. 
This mosque is about six hundred years old. 

Speaking of mosques, there are two, with very beautiful minarets, 
just outside and below the western wall. For the city is enclosed 



I20 THE KNOCKABOUT CLUB IN NORTH AFRICA. 

on every side by a high wall, with great gateways leading out, one 
toward Oran, the other toward the desert. The finer of the two 
is that of Sidi el Halani, or the Sweetmeat-maker, with a minaret de- 
corated with mosaics and a great court with arabesques, and with col- 
umns of Algerian onyx. It has finely carved cedar ceilings, and 
is comparatively modern, being only about five hundred years old. 
This mosque lies under the hill, and as you descend you can look 
down upon the minaret and the court, and view the whole ground- 
plan of the buildings. Upon the square top of this minaret, as upon 
that of every tower in the city, the huge bulk of a stork's nest may 
be seen, with the great birds keeping watchful guard. 

" Before the Arabian conquest," wrote Mungo Park, " or about the 
middle of the seventh century, all the inhabitants of Africa, whether 
descended from Numidians, Phoenicians, Carthaginians, Vandals, or 
Goths, were comprehended under the general name of Mauri, or 
Moors." All these nations were converted to the religion of Mahomet 
during the Arabian empire under the caliphs. Among the first 
converts must have been the dwellers in and about this ancient city 
of Tlemcen, for we find tombs of the saints there over a thousand 
years old, if reports may be trusted. 

I have called Tlemcen a " City of Arab Saints," because it was the 
dwelling-place of many venerated men whose tombs are now held 
as sacred places. About a mile distant from the city is the most 
venerated of them all, that of Sidi Bou Medine. Leaving the city 
by the gateway of Bou Medine, Mahomet and I passed many groups 
of females on their way to the cemetery. All were closely veiled, but 
we could not fail to notice that though their faces were covered their 
ankles were bare. They took no notice of us, but ambled along in 
that pokey way they have, and when they reached the cemetery they 
gathered in groups around various graves. The square tomb sacred 
to the memory of Sidi Snoosi, whom my guide called El Snoozer, 
seemed to be the favorite with them. 







MUSICIANS OF MOROCCO. 



ARAB TOMBS AND ARAB CITIES. 



123 



I certainly thought they would display a little animation when 
I turned my camera upon them, but they only drew their coverings 
closer about them and squinted at me with half an eye. So I 
revenged myself by taking a photograph of them, even though 
several fierce-looking Arabs were prowling about and glaring at 
me as if yearning for my gore. I asked Mahomet what they 
gathered about the graves for, and he said it was the only chance 
in the week they had for gossip ! I don't know what in the world 
they could find to gossip about, since every woman's costume is 
exactly like every other woman's, and they wear no bustles nor iji- 
dulge in other luxuries and excrescences so dear to the average 
woman. But there they sat for an hour or more, almost immov- 
able, and if they gossiped they did so in a quiet, lady-like way, 
squatted there on their haunches, without even a cup of tea to 
promote the flow of speech. 

In their every act these Arabs are quiet and dignified. I choose 
to believe these women engaged in devotion. Of a similar scene 
some one has written : " Regarding the scene from a purely artistic 
point of view, we can imagine no more fitting subject for a painter 
than this group of Arabs at their devotions, — Nature their temple, 
its altar the setting sun, their faces toward Mecca, their hearts 
toward the Prophet, their every attitude breathing devotion and 
faith." 

The cemetery is thickly set with graves, and one needs caution 
not to stumble over the numerous headstones, which are quaintly 
shaped and carven, and many of them picked out in colors, red, 
green, or yellow. A solemn place, this, and conducive to reflection, 
with its many memorials of the dead and its venerable olive-trees. 
It should be seen by moonlight, however, to be most effective ; 
then indeed does it suggest an unreal city by the banks of the 
quiet river. 

Beyond the graveyard is the Mosque of Sidi Bou Medine, entered 



124 I^HE KNOCKABOUT CLUB IN NORTH AFRICA. 

by a narrow way, sometimes closed by doors of bronze, — doors of 
such exquisite workmanship as to suggest the highest art. The pat- 
tern is an interlaced geometric, and they remind me of the bronze 
doors of the Mosque of Cordova. The decoration of the mosque is 
good, but much is modern, and in effect is somewhat tawdry. 

Stepping down below the level of the court, we enter the Koubba 
of the saint himself, Bou Medine, called the patron saint of Tlemcen. 
This tom.b is approached through a small court, in which is a well 
with curbing of stone which has been deeply worn by the use of 
s^ven hundred years. An old Arab sat here, guarding this sacred 
place from unbelievers who should venture to approach with feet 
uncovered. 

Sidi Bou is said to have been born in Spain, in Seville, when 
it was under Moslem rule, in the year of the Hegira 520, or a. d. 
1 1 26. He came over to Fez and studied theology, and died near 
Tlemcen. The interior of the tomb is hung with silken draperies, 
banners that are said to have been taken in Spain, ostrich-eggs, 
and other offerings of the sons of the Desert. In one corner is 
an object seemingly incongruous, and that is a grandfather's clock. 
How many years it has ticked away the time in that ancient tomb 
no one knows. Directly in front of the entrance-way to the outer 
court rises that of the mosque itself, ornamented with mosaic tiles 
made in Morocco. 

Everywhere, even in this most sacred place of the Arabs, I 
was treated with respect, and received with a grave courtesy that 
would have repelled the idea of a fee — had it not been for the 
ever-extended palm. 

Sidi Bou has a delightful situation, and the surrounding Arab 
village, though dirty, is yet charming in little stone houses and 
walled vineyards and gardens. 

On our way back we made a detour that took in another holy 
koubba, in a delightful cemetery, that of Sidi-Yakoub, which is of 



ARAB TOMBS AND ARAB CITIES, 



127 



the general shape and symmetry of the tombs of BHdah, in the 
sacred olive-grove. Not far from this is the great minaret of the 
Aghadir, a mosque long since destroyed, and which is over a thousand 
years old. 

These lofty minarets, so graceful and so tall, set the Professor 
to making a comparison with towers and monuments in other 
parts of the world. The following are the heights of a few of the 
tallest of them: The Leaning Tower of Pisa, 179 feet; Baltimore, 
Washington Monument, 210; Montreal, Notre Dame Cathedral, 220; 
Boston, Bunker Hill Monument, 221 ; Montreal, English Cathedral, 
224; Paris, Notre Dame, 224; Bologna, leaning tower, 272; Cairo, 
minaret of Mosque of Sultan Hassan, highest Mahometan minaret 
in the world, 282 ; New York, Trinity Church, 284 ; Florence, Cam- 
panile, or Giotto's Tower, 292; Lincoln, Cathedral, 300; Washing- 
ton, Capitol, 307; Venice, Campanile, 322; New York, St. Patrick's 
Cathedral (to be when completed), 330 ; Utrecht, Cathedral (formerly 
364), 338; Florence, Cathedral, 352; Milan, Cathedral, 355; London, 
St. Paul's, 365 ; Brussels, Hotel de Ville, 370 ; Lubeck, Cathedral, 
395 ; Antwerp, Cathedral, 402 ; Amiens, Cathedral, 422 ; Hamburg, 
St. Michael's, 428 ; Landshut, St. Martin's, 435 ; Cairo, Pyramid of 
Chef ren, 446 ; Vienna, St. Stephen's, 449; Cairo, Pyramid of Cheops 
(original height, 480), 450; Rome, St. Peter's, 455; Rouen, Notre 
Dame, 465 ; Strasburg, Cathedral, 468 ; Hamburg, St. Nicholas', 473 ; 
Cologne, Cathedral, 511 ; Washington Monument, 555. 

Were it not that I am about to describe another minaret yet 
more magnificent, I should halt to admire this impressive structure. 
All about the plains and slopes this side Tlemcen are the ruins of 
walls, towers, and minarets. These circles of fortifications can yet 
be made out surrounding the present city. That afternoon I again 
placed myself in charge of Mahomet, and we went out exploring 
in a different quarter. At first we lost ourselves in the network of 
ravines and fortifications that lies between the town and the hills 



128 THE KNOCKABOUT CLUB IN NORTH AFRICA. 

behind it. Then we emerged upon an open field, gay with scarlet 
poppies and dotted with knotted old olive-trees. Climbing away 
beyond, our pathway led up the cliff, several hundred feet high, 
and after much difficulty we reached a plateau above. Here I 
found another koubba placed upon the verge of the cliff, and visible 
from afar. This, Mahomet told me, is the tomb of a most holy 
woman, who had been dead not less than a thousand years. This 
I believe, for the Arabs have no respect for a woman less than 
a thousand years old. A little garden and fig-orchard lay around 
it, and here lived the guardian of the tomb with his little family. 
They received me well, and I chatted with them awhile and then 
hastened on. The view from this koubba is magnificent, taking 
in the whole valley in which Tlemcen is built, the mountains of 
Morocco beyond, and a faint glimmer of the distant sea. Down 
the face of this cliff fall two sparkling streams, one toward Tlemcen, 
and the other toward Mansoura. 

Mansoura is another city, — a city that has perished, all but its 
walls. During one of the long sieges of Tlemcen, nearly six hun- 
dred years ago, the chief in command turned his military camp 
into a city by building around it a wall forty feet high, enclosing 
about two hundred and fifty acres. At points about one hundred 
feet apart high towers were erected, battlemented and pierced. 
From the plateau I counted eighty towers yet remaining. It was 
a beautiful scene, — that broad plain bounded by hills, in its centre 
the twin cities Tlemcen and Mansoura, the one living, the other-; 
dead. 

High above the walls and towers rises the great minaret to the 
mosque that Abou Yakoub commanded to be built. It is about 
one hundred and twenty feet high, and called "by far the most 
beautiful architectural monument of Moorish times in Algeria." It 
is half in ruins, but has been strengthened by the French. It 
resembles the great tower of Seville, the Giralda ; and, like that 




Iliiilili!' 



ll 




illiiiiiiii 






i;\KES£y^ia 







ARAB TOMBS AND ARAB CITIES. I31 

tower, its ascent is made by a series of ramps instead of stairs, so 
that a horseman might ride to the summit. 

Were this the only monument here, tourists would come to 
view this grand memorial of the Moors. As to its color : " Photo- 
graphs may help you a little to imagine the place; but having 
looked at them, you must shut your eyes and color minaret and 
walls with richest reddest ochre; you must clothe the hills in living 
green, fill the space between hill and heavens with soft warm skies 
of southern blue, and then set the whole picture floating and palpi- 
tating in golden mist. This minaret is unlike anything else in the 
world. It is like a gigantic monolith of solid Indian gold, and is 
as wonderful as the Pyramids." 

We returned to the city through the Gate of Fez, leaving behind 
us this dead city, whose walls once enclosed great palaces and gar- 
dens, leaving it to the few Arabs now encamped within its fortifica- 
tions. It was such a delight to wander around the angles of its 
towers, beneath the shade of half-wild olives, and through peaceful 
fields of wheat! The air was pure and bracing, — though the sun 
was hot, — and filled with flower-perfume and the hum of bees. 
It had been "one of those celestial days when heaven and earth 
meet and adorn each other ; it seems a poverty that we could only 
spend it once." 

We had as a guide an Arab named Amedi Omche, who was 
an appendage of the Hotel de la Paix. If we had his autograph 
we would insert it; but as we have not, we give one of our little 
bills at the hotel itself. 



132 



THE KNOCKABOUT CLUB IN NORTH AFRICA, 



GRAND HOTEL DE LA PAIX 

TENU PAR 

PAUL BAILLS 
TLEMCEN 

Doit M Nos 9 

Tlemcen, le 2"" Mars, i; 



DATES. 


DJ^SIGNATION. 


SOMMES. 


31 

i^^ Avril 

2 

3 


Diner chambre . . . 
I journde, i cafd . . 
I journee, I cafe . . 
I cafd au lait .... 

Total .... 


tr. c. 

6 oo 

9 6o 

9 6o 

6o 


25 80 



Returning to the city, we passed the remainder of the day in 
the streets and market-places, chaffing and chatting with the natives. 
The market was of the primitive kind, where vegetables were found 
in one corner, meat in another, and articles of domestic manu- 
facture in another. All the marketing is done in the morning, 
and by noon the place is swept and garnished for health's sake ; 
for these Arabs are now under French rule, and can no longer 
sit all day in the sun and fester and emit evil odors. But the 
most interesting of all is the Arab quarter, where the streets are 
narrow, where the shopkeepers sit all day in little dens about eight 
by ten feet square, each one with a different article for sale. Here 
we see the different handicraftsmen at work, — the shoemaker, who 
makes those wondrous slippers without heels, of gorgeous red and 
yellow, ornamented with gold and silver braid, and the tailor, 
whose duties are not very arduous, as all his costumes are of the 
same pattern. 

It is thoroughly Oriental, and yet African. In these dens you 
find groups of gentlemanly Arabs, who are glad to have you join 



ARAB TOMBS AND ARAB CITIES. 1 33 

them in a cup of coffee and help them " at doing nothing all day 
in a row." 

An English writer says of these same Arabs : — 

"Years elapsed between our first and our last visit; yet there they were 
when we came again, still doing nothing in a row. There was the same old 
negro in a dark corner, making coffee and handing it to customers sitting in 
the same places, in the same dream. 

*' They have their traditions, their faith, their romance of life, and the 
curious belief that if they fear God and Mahomet, and sit there long enoughy 
they will one day be sent for to Spain, to re-people the houses where their 
fathers dwelt. 

" In such places as these we fall asleep and dream, — under the combined 
influences of coffee, hashish, the tom-tom, and heat, — dream that the world is 
standing still, and that all the people hi a hitrry are dead I" 




CHAPTER VIII. 

THE "DIAMOND IN AN EMERALD SETTING." 

T last we were in Algiers, city of the ancient Turk- 
ish corsairs. Our guide was an Arab, but evidently 
an honest one, not of the street variety, but of 
the desert. As a type of nearly all the Arab 
porters that swarm the streets and quays of 
Algiers he may now be presented. His com- 
plexion was a rich brown (or the coat of dirt that covered it was) ; 
above his complexion he wore a fez that was originally red, but 
now auburn ; his person was clad in gunny-bags. One gunny-bag 
with three holes in it served as a shirt, another gunny-bag with 
two holes in the bottom served as pantaloons and was^ lashed 
around the waist with a scarf. Yet he seemed happy, almost as 
happy as other porters who wore more gunny-bags, and were con- 
sequently higher up in the social scale. 

He trotted off ahead of us with our heap of luggage as though 
it was of no consequence at all. Owing to some defect in his 
understanding, he could n't comprehend my French, neither could 
I understand his Arabic; but he knew well that I wanted to go 
to a hotel, and so he led the way to an imposing structure on 
the Boulevard, known as the Grand Hotel d'Oasis. Oasis, as I 
learned once from my geography, means a " green spot in a desert," 
and as the name seemed refreshing, I allowed him to convey me 
thither. It was after the French style ; all the hotels are of this 



THE ''DIAMOND IN AN EMERALD SETTING." 1 35 

kind throughout Algiers. The cafe is independent, or semi-detached; 
the office is near the entrance ; an open hall, or patioy extends from 
the first floor nearly or quite to the roof, and the landlord awaits 
you with profound bows and a smiling countenance. In a very 
short time I was installed, my gunny-bag Arab was paid (another 
franc), and I was at liberty to saunter about the city. 

First, as it was then early, I secured a cup of coffee and an 
orange, then strolled about to acquaint myself with the salient 
features of Algiers. It was a bright, cool, and windy morning, that 
of the 20th of March. Though early, a large proportion of the 
population seemed to be astir, and we had company everywhere; 
yet not an obtrusive company. The population of Algiers, Arab, 
Moor, Nubian, French, etc., is thoroughly cosmopolitan ; it manifests 
no surprise at anything, for there never w^as, certainly, anything 
more unique than itself. 

But the city. We must have a framework for our pictures, even 
though it be somewhat of a skeleton. In a word, as to situation, 
as to composition, as to surroundings, Algiers is the most beauti- 
ful of any we had then seen. Its beauty is of the Oriental type, 
with an intrusion from France. The French structures, which are 
mainly along the quays and in the lower part of the town, are of 
themselves fine, even grand, but they spoil the picture of Algiers 
from the sea by breaking the continuity of the converging lines 
that lead up the hillside from the water's edge. 

In general outline this city is an isosceles triangle, resting against 
a background of red and verdure-clad hills. Not inaptly, the ancient 
Arabs compared it to a diamond with emerald setting, A milky 
opal, rather, it seemed to me, with the hues of iridescence clouded 
over; for the walls and roofs are creamy-hued, and from a little dis- 
tance blend most beautifully with their surroundings. The general 
slope of the Sahel, or chain of hills, behind and extending beyond 
the city is toward the south and east. From the blue waters of 



1.^.6 



THE KNOCKABOUT CLUB IN NORTH AFRICA. 



the deep bay the city mounts the hill in a succession of terraces 
line above line, the modern French houses near the water-line, the 
true Arab city higher up, and the apex of the pyramid crowned by 
the Kasba, or ancient citadel of the Beys, some four hundred feet 
above the quays. Since the French occupation of Algiers, now some 




AN OASIS IN THE DESERT. 



fifty years past, the modern buildings above the entire water-front 
have been erected. The most maQ-nificent work here seems to be 
along the quays, a series of arches rising some forty feet above 
the water-line, in two tiers, covering an area of eleven acres, with 
a frontage of thirty-seven hundred feet, and occupied as warehouses 
and storage-rooms, some three hundred and fifty in number. This 



THE ''DIAMOND IN AN EMERALD SETTING:' 1 37 

great work was the achievement of Sir Morton Peto; it cost some 
;^300,ooo, and was completed about twenty years ago. This system 
of arches supports the grand avenue formerly called the Boulevard 
de rimperatrice (Eugenie), but now known as the Boulevard de la 
Republique. As it overlooks the enclosed harbor, the beautiful bay, 
the shipping, and gives glimpses of the Atlas Mountains beyond, 
this boulevard is the favorite promenade of an afternoon and even- 
ing, and is densely crowded. The finest buildings, six to eight 
stories in height, front toward this boulevard and the bay, and the 
best hotels are here, nearly all with a line of arcades. 

All the buildings of the city are of stone, massive structures, 
many with white or tinted walls, and roofs of tiles. There is no 
structure in the world that lends itself so perfectly to become a 
component part of the landscape as the stone-walled building with 
roof of richly tinted tiles. I wonder why we do not use this kind 
more in America. Is it because of the frost, or expense, or custom 
to the contrary ? To counterbalance our evil of frost, they have here 
the gales of the Mediterranean and an occasional earthquake. 

An unbroken line of fortifications surrounds the city, beginning 
at either end of the boulevard, running up the hills behind it and 
crowning its crest, — a high walk loopholed, battlemounted, and but- 
tressed by occasional forts. Two great jetties sweep around from 
north and south and enclose a sheltered harbor two hundred and 
twenty-two acres in area, with a depth of forty feet, and a width of 
entrance something over one thousand feet. The breakwater was 
begun in 1836, and is said to have been the first experiment in 
constructing works of this kind with blocks of concrete. It was a 
successful experiment, and even though some of the great blocks 
have been undermined and broken down, the enclosed harbor is per- 
fectly sheltered. Beacons at either extremity, one showing a green 
and the other a red light, guide the mariner into the harbor at night. 
All this was a modern work ; but there had existed, previous to the 



138 THE KNOCKABOUT CLUB IN NORTH AFRICA. 

coming of the French, a small harbor protected by a mole. This 
was constructed in 15 18, by the first of the pirate Deys who made 
the name of Algiers such a terror to the followers of the sea. 

Not only the remains of this are still seen, but even the light- 
house built in 1544 yet stands. It is octagonal in shape, one hun- 
dred and twenty feet high, and displays a fixed white light visible 
fifteen miles at sea. This lighthouse of the pirates is built upon 
the remains of a fort the Spaniards erected and held for many 
years, called by them Fort Penon. The fortifications, as already 
mentioned, begin at the breakwater on either side and entirely en- 
close, not alone the city, but the hill on which it is built. A great 
wall was built fi-om the sea to the Kasba in 1540 by one of the 
pachas, and in 1581 the fort at the eastern end of the Boulevard 
de la Republique, known as the Fort Bab-Azoun. The present line 
of environment consists of a high rampart, parapet, and ditch, with 
here and there bastions stretching around from sea to sea. To 
the north is the city gate of Bab-el Oned, to the south the gate 
of Bab-Azoun. These modern fortifications are said to have cost 
above two million dollars, and occupy about one hundred and eighty 
acres ; yet they are of little use at the present time, and are more 
effective as picturesque features of the town's architecture than as 
means of defence. 

Having now got the city surrounded, let us note something of 
its history. The highest point on the fortified line is the great 
Fort de I'Empereur, built some three hundred and fifty years ago 
by Hassan Pacha, the successor to Kheir-ed-din. They were the 
first of the long line of Deys. Very few of these rulers had a very 
long reign, as they were either strangled, or stabbed, or thrown into 
the sea. Their stronghold was the citadel crowning the triangular 
city, the Kasba, from the high pavilion of which they overlooked 
the city, the bay, and the open sea beyond. This Kasba was an 
immense structure, part of which is still standing, with a mosque 



THE ''DIAMOND IN AN EMERALD SETTINGr 1 39 

and interior palace, defended, it is said, by above two hundred pieces 
of artillery. 

Such was the stronghold of the Algerine corsairs ; let us see 
what history says of them. From the opening chapter in Sir R. L. 
Playfair's "Scourge of Christendom" I extract the following: 

'' Even as early as 1390, the Barbary corsairs began to trouble the seas, and 
at the urgent request of the Genoese a force consisting of a ^ great number of 
lords, knights, and gentlemen of France and England set out from Genoa' to 
chastise them. . . . They landed at Mehedia, on the coast of Tunis, where the 
EngHsh archers did good service with their long bows, beating back the enemy 
from the shore. They besieged Mehedia, but at length, constrained .vv^ith the 
intemperancy of the scalding air in that hot country, breeding in the army sun- 
dry diseases, they fell to a compensation on certain articles, and so sixty-one 
days after their arrival they returned home." 

After the fall of Granada, in 1492, the ravages of the pirates 
became more serious. A considerable number of Moorish families 
settled in North Africa ; they were too much exasperated against 
their persecutors not to seek every opportunity for revenge, and 
being well acquainted with the coasts of their native country, their 
fury naturally fell upon the Spaniards nearest the Mediterranean. 
But it was not confined to these alone. Eno-lish traders were Q-reat 
sufferers ; indeed, the Moors openly avowed themselves the common 
enemies of Christendom. 

Ferdinand of Spain became seriously alarmed; in 1509 his fleets 
took possession of Oran and Bonzia, and a force was sent to re- 
connoitre Algiers; but finding nothing there save a small harbor 
and a walled enciente, they merely occupied one of the islands, sub- 
sequently called El Pefion, which they strongly fortified. 

Algiers derives its name, it is said, from these islands in its 
harbor {El Djczair, — the islands). The Spaniards were thus enabled 
to blockade the port, to prevent the entrance or departure of a 
piratical craft, and force the Algerincs to pay tribute. At the 



I40 THE KNOCKABOUT CLUB IN NORTH AFRICA. 

death of Ferdinand, in 1516, the Algerines made an attempt to 
recover their hberty. They offered the sovereignty of their city 
to Salem, at Nimii, an Arab from BHdah, who at once began to 
blockade the Pefion and prevent all provisions from being supplied 
to it from the town. The fort retaliated by cannonading the town ; 
and in this emergency Salem sent an embassy to invite the cele- 
brated corsairs, Baba Arondji, or Barbarossa, and his brother (Greeks 
of Mitylene, who had settled at Djidjely) to come to Algiers and 
assist in expelling the Spaniards. 

Baba Arondji was only too happy to embrace this opportunity 
of making himself master of Algiers. He advanced upon it by 
land with five thousand men ; soon after, he strangled the Emir 
with his own hands, forced his wife to commit suicide, and massacred 
all the women of his harem. He took possession of the place 
nominally as a vassal of the Sultan, but really as an independent 
ruler. In 15 18 Barbarossa was killed in an encounter with the 
Spaniards at Rio Salado, near Tlemcen, and was succeeded at 
Algiers by his brother, Kheir-ed-din. In 1529 the latter succeeded 
in taking the Pefion fort from the Spaniards, killing or enslaving 
its garrison, and putting to death its brave commander, Martin de 
Vargas. He at once deprived it of its insular position by joining 
it to the mainland by means of a causeway, thus forming the 
harbor, or mole, destined for so many years to give shelter to the 
pirate fleets. 

X 

The history of Algiers as a piratical State really begins with 
the reign of Kheir-ed-din, in 1518. For three hundred years it 
was governed by the Turks, and held all the nations of Europe 
in terror. Year by year the depredations of the Barbary corsairs 
became more audacious. They could not support themselves without 
roaming the sea for plunder, which they did, without the least fear 
or apprehension, as far even as the shores of England. At other 
times, carrying with them renegades as guides, they deliberately 



THE ''DIAMOND IN AN EMERALD SETTING:' I41 

landed on the coasts and islands of the Mediterranean, pillaged 
towns and farms, and carried off their inhabitants into most wretched 
captivity. In this manner they utterly ruined Corsica, Sardinia, 
Sicily, many parts of the coast of Italy and Spain, and the Balearic 
Islands. They arrogated to themselves the right to wage war on 
every nation of Europe which did not purchase their forbearance 
by tribute or special treaties, and they absolutely declined to be 
on friendly terms with more than one or two at a time, so that 
they might be free to plunder the remainder. They dictated the 
most humiliating conditions and restrictions in matters concerning 
the internal affairs of the Christian powers, especially with re- 
gard to their navigation laws, such as the nature of the passes 
their vessels were to carry, and the number of foreigners allowed 
to be on board; and they successfully maintained their right to 
search all vessels on the high seas. They never hesitated to send 
the representatives of the most powerful monarchs to hard labor 
in chains at the quarries, or even to blow them away from guns 
at the smallest provocation. 

It seems incredible at the present day that such a state of 
things could have been permitted to exist. The only explanation 
is that our nation found these corsairs a convenient scouree for 
others with whom it was at war. Thus the consuls of the various 
nations, but especially those of England and France, were per- 
petually scheming to induce the Dey to break peace with the 
rival nation or to prevent its restoration after war had actually 
broken out. 

The whole history of the Algerines " shows that they never 
respected any treaty when they could violate it with advantage or 
probable immunity; nevertheless, they continued to be treated till 
the very last, by all the maritime nations, with a degree of respect 
to which they never had any just claim. Even England, France, 
and Spain paid tribute, if not directly, then through the form of 



142 



THE KNOCKABOUT CLUB IN NORTH AFRICA. 



consular presents, and most valuable gifts in money and warlike 
stores. The weaker nations, which had to submit to the humilia- 
tion of paying actual tribute, were treated in the most contemptuous 
manner, and in the event of too long arrears remaining unpaid, 
their consuls were sent to hard labor in chains, from which some 
of them actually died. Mr. Eaton, American consul at Tunis, said 
in 1 798, writing of the Dey : " Can any man believe that this 
elevated brute has seven kings of Europe, two republics, and a 
continent tributary to him, when his whole naval force is not equal 
to two line-of-battle ships .f^ " On the other hand, every State in 
Europe held it lawful at one time to enslave an infidel; the com- 
mon law of England, as well as the Inquisition, doomed heretics 
to the stake. The Inquisition was what, doubtless, drove first the 
Moors to make these reprisals for the terrible sufferings of their 
ancestors. 

Until 16 1 8 Algiers was governed by a Pasha, in direct subor- 
dination to the Porte. At this date the Sultan consented to his 
being nominated by the militia, but reserved the right of confir- 
mation. In 1 66 1 the Janissaries gave the actual authority to their 
own Agha, and in 1671 they elected one of their own body as 
Dey, or Protector. From that time the Pasha sent by the Porte 
had to content himself with the honors of his position, without 
exercising any real power. From 17 10 the title of Pasha was 
conferred on the Dey, and the two offices became united in the 
same person. 

In regard to slavery, one author says: — 

" When that Institution was at Its height, there were from twenty thousand 
to thirty thousand captives at a time in Algiers alone, representing every nation 
in Europe and every rank In society, from the viceroy to the common sailor, — 
men of the highest eminence in the church, literature, science, and arms, deli- 
cately nurtured ladies and little children, doomed to spend their lives in infamy. 
The majority never returned to their native land, and comparatively few have 



THE ''DIAMOND IN AN EMERALD SETTING: 



45 



left us a detailed account of their sufferings. The slaves were either the prop- 
erty of the Dey or of private individuals. They were sold at auction. The 
government slaves generally wore a ring of iron around one ankle, and were 
bound in three prisons, or bagnios, in dark cells, swarming with vermin. In 
every bagnio there was a small chapel, and the slaves were allowed the free 
exercise of their religion. Words cannot paint their miserable condition ; yet, 
deplorable as it was, there is no reason to suppose that it was worse than that 
of the galley slaves of France, Spain, Italy, or Malta. We may search in vain 
for records of greater cruelty than the tortures inflicted during the reign of 
Louis XIV. on the Huguenot prisoners during their long and painful marches 
from Paris to the coast, where as many as four hundred were sometimes fast- 
ened together by the neck, couple behind couple, to a long central chain, till 
they were finally consigned to the unspeakable tortures of the royal galleys at 
Toulon or Marseilles." 



After the subjection of Algiers to the Christian powers in the 
early part of this century, the Turks, the masters of the country 
until then, did not exceed three thousand men, wrote our consul- 
general, Mr. Shaler, in 1816; that is, the number in the Regency 
eligible for any office of honor or profit. 

The number of Kouloughis (or descendants of Turks and Moorish 
women) was about twelve thousand. This latter class had some 
privileges, but not a common feeling with the Turks. Besides 
these, there was a small body of seamen, generally native Algerines. 
The rest of the population consisted of Moors, Arabs, Biscaries, 
Kabyles, and Jews, enjoying no rights, and subject to every sort 
of oppression. 

At that time, in 18 16, Algiers received one hundred and thirty 
thousand dollars a year from tributary powers, including fifty thou- 
sand dollars from Great Britain. The Algerine commerce was too in- 
significant to be mentioned, any deficiency being more than made 
good by plunder. " Of their too celebrated navy, a brig, a schooner, 
and seven gunboats only remained after the bombardment." 

It was about a hundred years ago, or in 1783, that Algiers 

10 



146 



THE KNOCKABOUT CLUB IN NORTH AFRICA, 




declared war against the United States, in order to make prizes 
of its merchant vessels. Ten years later more than one hundred 
Americans were in slavery, and our minister to Portugal was 
empowered to negotiate a treaty for their liberation. By this treaty 
we paid the pirates seven hundred thousand dollars, and were further 

pledged to pay an annual tri- 
bute of twenty thousand dol- 



"^'"""^"^3 lars. In the last year of the 

-£l last century the Algerines 

%, made an insulting demand of 

\^ Captain Bainbridge, command- 

\ ing the frigate " George Wash- 

ington," but it was not until 

18 1 2 that they again declared 

open war against us. 

Other nations had endured 

their insults for centuries, but' 

the United States, as soon as 

possible, or in 18 15, resolved 

to break the chains and bring 

the Dey of Algiers to terms. 

Bainbridge and Decatur were 

sent there with a squadron, 

and forced the pirate to a 

recognition of American rights, at the same time landing William 

Shaler as consul-general. The full account of these proceedings 

may still be seen at the American consulate in Algiers. 

The next year the English, encouraged by American success, 
sent a squadron under Lord Exmouth, who bombarded the city, 
firing into it over fifty thousand shot and shell, and inflicting a 
loss upon the Algerines of over seven thousand. By this means 
he succeeded in liberating three thousand slaves, of all nations ; 




STEPHEN DECATUR. 



THE ''DIAMOND IN AN EMERALD SETTING:' I47 

but it was not long before the pirate corsairs were again sweeping 
the seas for plunder from the Christians. 

It is a wonder that the civilized world had so long permitted 
this Turkish ulcer to exist, when one vigorous application of the 
knife would have removed it. But it was left for the French to 
put an end forever to Turkish rule in Algiers. 

It was upon a trivial pretext that they declared war against 
Algiers; but it served the purpose, and in June, 1830, thirty-four 
thousand men were landed. On the 4th of July they captured 
the forts commanding the city, and on the loth the Dey embarked 
with all his suite and harem for Naples. 



CHAPTER IX. 

IN THE CORSAIRS' STRONGHOLD.— THE DOCTOR TELLS AN 

INDIAN STORY. 




HAVE more still to say about Algiers and the 
Algerines ; but at this juncture the Doctor claims 
my attention, and says that I am putting in too 
many statistics, and he thinks he should have a 
word to say. Perhaps he may be right ; at all 
events, I will let him tell his story, and our readers 
may sit in judgment on him. The Doctor, as you know, is a 
rather light-headed individual, but he means well, and he has trav- 
elled extensively. The story he tells here is of the time when he 
was a reporter on a Boston paper, and the editor sent him off to 
write about the Indians. 

" Boston is at present the most monotonous place in the universe," said the 
managing editor to me, as I appeared before him, in response to his invitation ; 
" there has actually nothing exciting occurred since that man was stabbed on 
the Common." 

" Had his nose slit, did n't he? " 

*' Yes, about six months ago. Well, what I want now is something stirring, 
something to break this universal sameness ; and you are the man I have 
selected to break it. Not a word ; it must be broken. When can you start? " 

" Hot or cold country? " 

" What 's the difference? " 

" All equipped for a hot chmate, — light clothing, cholera mixture, and bit- 
ters; but a cold country settles me, for my overcoat's in pawn." 



IN THE CORSAIRS' STRONGHOLD. 149 

*' That decides it, then ; it 's a hot country, — Mexico." 

"What portion? " 

" The northern first, Chihuahua ; but eventually the whole." 

"Beg pardon; Chee — what?" 

"Chihuahua; you must exercise on these Mexican words. With this one 
you attempt first to sneeze, then begin a war-whoop, but bite it off in the 
middle." 

'* Thank you ; but I might bite off more than I could chaw." 

''Could what?" 

" Chew." 

"Ah! um? Let me see. Here are your railroad passes to the Mexican 
border, a letter to the general manager of the Central Railroad, a thirty-eight 
calibre six-shooter, bottle of pain-killer, and a corkscrew. Won't that do you 
for a send-off ? " 

" You 've forgotten one thing." 

" Oh, certainly, my blessing, which I freely give you." 

" Can I realize on it? " 

"Realize?" 

" Convert it into cash ! " 

"True, I forgot that; here's a draft for dollars. One word more; in 

writing of Mexico, always allude to it as ' Our Sister Republic; ' our aim is to 
create a fraternal feeling between the Gringo and the Greaser, and it 's better to 
pat the Mexican on the back than to pull his hair. Again, never fail to ob- 
serve that every important enterprise in the West owes its inception to Boston 
capital ; never forget that the simple word Boston is an open sesame to the hos- 
pitality of the haughty don and — and the humble donkey. Go now: remem- 
ber that Boston follows you ; that our eye is on you. Your first adventure will 
be with the Apaches." 

" But, my dear sir, the Apaches are Indians." 

" To be sure, we have thousands of them on the reservations ; but the genu- 
ine, Simon-pure Apache is only to be found in Mexico. What we want is, the 
wild man in a state of nature, as he exists without civilization and fire-water; 
give us real adventure, something hair-lifting! And don't peddle out to us 
that stock story of the United States never having kept faith with a single red- 
skin in any of its treaties ; we want an Indian that has never been treatied. 
And no gush about the ' Great Father at Washington ; ' I can put that in 
myself; all that sort of thing we keep in stock, to trot out occasionally, for the 
benefit of the Peace Societies." 

" It's very kind of you, I 'm sure; but the sort of Indian you are yearning 
for generally resents all intrusion into his domain." 



150 THE KNOCKABOUT CLUB IN NORTH AFRICA. 

" That 's your business ; fortunately you 're pretty bald — you Ve been mar- 
ried twice, I believe, — and no sensible Indian will attach much importance to 
your scalp." 

With these words the managing editor bowed me out; two days later I 
was in Chicago, the third night in Kansas City, and within a week had placed 
twenty-eight hundred miles between me and Boston. Diligent inquiry, after I 
had arrived in the capital of Chihuahua — a large and quaint old Mexican city 
— revealed the fact that a strong armed force was about to start in pursuit of 
the Apaches, whose stronghold was in the fastnesses of the Sierra Madre Moun- 
tains, some two hundred miles distant. 

The officer in command of this force, the Thirteenth Regiment of the Mexi- 
can Army of the. North, was extremely kind and courteous, and by a judicious 
use of my Spanish (which I had acquired a mastery of in South America), sup- 
plemented by the corkscrew, I obtained his permission to accompany them. 

Our band of soldiers was composed entirely of Indians, mainly Aztecs from 
the Valley of Mexico, nearly as dark in complexion as mulattoes, undersized, 
clad in ragged and dirty regimentals, but carrying excellent rifles, which they 
could use effectively; and they were the best fighters in the world. They 
marched with a rapid pace, keeping up easily with our wiry mustangs, never 
seemed tired, and were always cheerful. Their total pay was about a real 
(twelve cents) a day. By a liberal use of cigarettes and tobacco, with a little 
mescal, or Mexican rum, now and then, I gained the good will of these poor 
devils so completely, that a detachment of them was ready at any time to go 
off with me wherever I might wish to lead them. 

We were going to penetrate into the Mexican State of Sonora, where, 
hidden among the almost inaccessible mountains, were a few fertile valleys, 
occupied from time immemorial by the Apaches, — their secure retreat after 
all their murderous frays. These Indians rarely cultivate the soil, but rely 
mainly upon its natural products, such as the fruit of the cactus, the pino7i, 
or pine nut, and especially a kind of oak which grows there, and bears a sweet 
acorn, which they grind into flour and make into bread. Sometimes they raise 
a few beans, corn, and pumpkins, vary their diet with stolen horse-flesh, and with 
canned goods taken from the white man, and drink immoderately the various 
liquors distilled from the Maguey plant. They are very fleet of foot, excellent 
horsemen, unerring shots both with bow and rifle, and many of the warriors still 
carry shields of leopard-skin, each with a mirror in its centre, to dazzle the eyes 
of an enemy. 

Their warfare consists in surprises and attacks, they use signal-smokes, 
and still make fire by that primitive method of twirling a hard, pointed stick in 
a softer one. Their best and most courageous man is always their chief, head- 



IN THE CORSAIRS' STRONGHOLD. I51 

ing the councils and leading them to battle. They go nearly naked, and are 
filthy to the last degree. The women never wash themselves or comb their 
hair while the " bucks " are on the war-path, — and they are on the war-path 
nearly all the time. They have only dim notions of a Supreme Being, whom 
they call Tax-tax-i-tax-i-tamme, but whom they never worship. 

As fighters, they surpass any Indians in the United States ; they have been 
known to ambuscade on a perfectly level plain, where there was neither brush 
nor tree, cover themselves with dust, tie grass to their hair to make it look like 
the clumps of grass about them, and in this way lie in wait for a wagon train, 
let it pass close to them, and then jump up and massacre the teamsters. When 
on the war-trail, they march seventy or eighty miles a day, by killing their 
horses as fast as they give out and stealing others from the ranches on the way. 
In this way they carry terror to wide sections of country, never halting, appear- 
ing in places far apart as if by magic, and retreating with their booty, when 
pursued, to the unknown fastnesses of the mountains we were seeking to 
penetrate. 

Two years before, that great Indian fighter. General Crook, made a most 
perilous march down into a portion of this region from the north, and was 
absent so long, without sending out any tidings of his progress, that he was 
given up for lost, with all his band. But he finally came out, having captured 
two or three hundred Apaches, whom he placed on the reservation, where they 
were later followed by nearly all the Barbaros (Mexican savages) in the 
Sierras. All those at present residing in the United States are peaceful, and 
fast becoming civilized, having been supplied with agricultural implements, 
cows, and garden seeds, by the Indian agents, and having already raised very 
creditable crops of wheat and corn. At first, to be sure, they sacrificed all 
their cows and calves to their inordinate appetites, thinking it was a waste of 
meat to have it running about where some other Indians might capture it. 

They have improved their leisure moments since General Crook brought 
them out of the wilderness of sin and iniquity into the light of civilization, and 
have become adepts at the national games of the Americans, such as euchre and 
poker. The fascinating Mexican game oimojttc they had already acquired before 
Crook found them, and passed whole days and nights in play. It was my good 
fortune to meet this band of savages as it was first brought over the Border. 
When in their native stronghold they were in the condition of poor Robinson 
Crusoe on his desolate island, — with more money than they knew what to do 
with (obtained from their forays upon the settlements), and with no market for 
the ponies and cattle they had stolen from the despised Mexicans. Thanks, 
however, to the solicitude of General Crook, they had at last been placed in 



152 THE KNOCKABOUT CLUB IN NORTH AFRICA, 

communication with a market for their gains. Doubtless they commended 
themselves for their foresight in gathering to themselves much plunder against 
the time when they should be led out to trade in the white man's country. At 
all events, they had several thousand dollars of murdered men's money; and 
some Western gamblers, hearing of this, started for their camps with the laud- 
able purpose of relieving them of the care of so much lucre. I wished them 
all success, and watched them engage the Indians in a game of rnonte with a 
good deal of interest. At first it was difficult to see which displayed the most 
skill, red-skin or pale-face ; but the fount from which the former drew seemed 
inexhaustible, for Uncle Sam is president of the Indian bank, and when the 
present supply should be exhausted they had only to draw a check for more ; 
in other words, take their government rifles and ammunition, sally out and bag 
a few worthless white settlers, and return to the fold with their spoil. But their 
long days of idleness on the reservation had not counted for nothing, as those 
gamblers learned ; for when the shades of evening fell, the latter wended their 
way homeward in a condition expressed by that much-abused Western word, 
busted. 

General Crook thought he had bagged the entire Apache band ; but there 
was one wily old chief who resisted all importunities and remained hidden, with 
his squaws and a few of the bravest of his tribe, in the northern ravines of the 
mountains, where the Americans had not been able to penetrate. He had re- 
mained quiet for some time after Crook's raid, but of late had begun to run in 
cattle and had murdered a few rancheros. It was this old cut-throat chief (Old 
Jiih, I think they called him, — pronounced Who), whom we were after, with 
our half regiment of Mexican soldiers. 

Our force was large, but we had difficult work before us ; for old Juh was 
said to be intrenched in a vast cafion from which numerous lateral ravines led 
out, and it was the purpose of our officer in command to surround entirely the 
whole region, occupy not only the table-land above the canon, but post soldiers 
in every ravine, closing all avenues of escape. 

It was at the close of our sixth day's march; we had left behind us the hot 
and arid plains and the cooler foot-hills, and approached the mountain strong- 
hold of the Indian braves. During the following day our columns were de- 
ployed and posted at their assigned positions ; the next day, at dawn, the various 
lines commenced their advance toward the central point. It was about noon 
before our detachment, which was scrambling along the rugged walls of the 
cafion, discovered Indian signs nigh. How the sun beat down between those 
perpendicular walls ! The intense heat caused us to throw aside everything not 
absolutely necessary. Suddenly, as we were picking our way over the blister- 



IN THE CORSAIRS' STRONGHOLD. 



155 



ing rocks, a sharp report rang out, which the canon walls reverberated until it 
seemed like thunder. It had not yet died away before one of our soldiers 
dropped, all in a heap, across a bowlder, shot through the head. Perfect silence 
succeeded ; not a foe was in sight. Only a thin wreath of smoke, curling above 
a cave-hollowed cliff, told whence the fatal shot had come. '* To the rocks ! " 
shouted our captain; " get a shelter, and every man for himself! " But even 
before we could do this another shot rang out, and another soldier plunged 
headlong down the steep. Fortunately, we were at a point a little higher than 
the savages, and by working our way carefully along, obtained detached points 
whence we could occasionally see a black head pop out, and thus were warned 
in time to avoid the bullets. They were evidently few in number, but all were 
sharp shooters, and three more of our little group were killed before we could 
get a single shot at them. Then we got in a straggling volley that killed at 
least two of them ; but they were well intrenched, and for ten hours we waited 
in suspense for the arrival of our friends from the lower end of the canon, A 
commotion in that direction then showed us that they were coming. The In- 
dians observed it, and were so excited by it that two more exposed themselves 
and were shot down. Gradually our gallant Mexicans advanced up the gorge ; 
the Indian situation was so desperate that the savages made a break, trying to 
scale the cliff above them. 

" Bayonets ! " yelled our captain, and sprang forward with revolver in hand, 
followed by every man, including myself. Every one there, except myself, had 
some deed of blood to avenge, either for himself or some murdered comrade, 
and could not be stopped by the fire of the desperate savages. There were 
seven of them ; five of our poor fellows were stopped by their bullets, but our 
friends below now nearly met us at the objective point, and it was a matter of 
savage rivalry as to who should first plunge his bayonet into the red-skin. I 
don't believe one '* buck" escaped. Old Juh was the last; he backed himself 
into a cleft in the cliff and kept us back awhile, till the magazine of his rifle was 
exhausted; but a bayonet pierced his brawny breast at last, and with a shriek 
of rage he dashed upon the Mexican who thrust it at him, and fell, impaled 
upon the rocks. 

Silence ensued ; our captain, wounded in the arm, with the smoke still curl- 
ing from his revolver, sank breathless upon the dead body of an Indian. Just 
then a swarthy being glided stealthily out from beneath a rock, passed the 
officer, and plunged a glittering knife-blade deep into the throat of the soldier 
who had given the coup dc grace to Juh. For a moment paralyzed, three of his 
comrades dashed forward, and another savage lay dead with the rest. It was a 
squaw, hideous in paint and wrinkles, but heroic in her nature, who had done a 



156 THE KNOCKABOUT CLUB IN NORTH AFRICA. 

deed for which a civiHzed woman would have been lauded to the skies. This 
movement directed our attention to the place of her retreat, and there we found 
a group of squavv^s and children huddled together beneath an overhanging rock, 
like a bevy of captured quail. So murderously troublesome had these Apaches 
been, that the blood of our men was at the boiling point, and they sprang for- 
ward to put an end to these scowling savages ; but our captain was a hero. 
" Stop ! " he shouted ; " they cannot harm us. Take them with us, and let them 
live. True, their deeds have been extremely bad, but we can afford to be mer- 
ciful and cannot afford to be cruel, — much less to stain our hands knowingly 
with the blood of squaws and children." 

The soldiers sullenly obeyed him. One by one they were drawn from their 
hiding-place, thirteen of them, glaring at us defiance, but speechless. 

Still the sun beat down upon us; we were parched with thirst. The bugle 
sounded a retreat. Our dead were buried in crevices of the rocks, our wounded 
tenderly assisted ; and bringing the plunder of the Indian camp with our cap- 
tives, we painfully retraced our steps out of the canon, camping that night in an 
open pine forest. Our stragglers and scouts came in before daylight; and from 
their reports, and the reluctant replies to our questionings of the squaws, we 
were led to believe that we had effectually disposed of the last of the bar- 
barous Indians of the Sierras. 

Now that the Doctor has had his say, let me continue with 
my description of Algiers. 

I hope my readers will pardon me this long introduction to 
my olla podrida. The olla, you know, is composed of beef, mutton, 
chicken, bacon, lard, pig's feet, garlic, onions, and all kinds of vege- 
tables ; and the Spaniards say : — 

No hay olla sin tocino, 

Ni sermon sin San Agostino. 

" No olla without its bacon, and no sermon without Saint Augustine." 
Although Algiers had little commerce with distant ports, and 
little trade with the interior, yet the French found nearly ten million 
dollars in the treasury. They immediately set about the pacification 
of the country, working from the coast to the mountains and the 
interior ; but it was nearly seventeen years before the insurrections 




MERCHANT AND CAMEL. 



IN THE CORSAIRS' STRONGHOLD. 1 59 

of Arabs and Kabyles were entirely suppressed. The greatest chief 
to oppose them was Abd-el-Kader, a direct descendant of the family 
of the Prophet, and a holy man who had performed a pilgrimage to 
Mecca. This wonderful man kept the fires of insurrection alight 
until his capture, in 1847. He was taken to France a prisoner, was 
released in 1852, after swearing upon the Koran that he would fight 
the French no more, and died in Damascus. 

The country enjoyed twenty years of comparative peace and pros- 
perity, but in 1 87 1, at the time of the Franco-German war, the hill 
tribes broke out into rebellion, which was only quenched after long 
and terrible struggles with the returning troops from France. Some 
trouble has since been experienced in the desert country, where an 
exploring expedition was exterminated ; but at present the traveller can 
pass with perfect safety throughout that portion of North Africa in 
possession of the French. The greatest drawbacks to progress have 
been natural causes, or rather the unnatural workings of Nature's 
forces, — such as earthquakes (of local occurrence), locusts, droughts, 
and resultant famines and pestilence. In 1866 and 1867 occurred a 
great flight of locusts, coming up from the desert, and then exces- 
sive drought, with occasional earthquakes. It is estimated that two 
hundred thousand persons perished. 

The French are actively building barrages for the storing of 
water to obviate the effects of drought, and they do all they can to 
destroy the locusts ; but against the earthquakes they are powerless. 
The great locust-cloud of a few years ago will be long remembered 
for its disastrous effect upon Algerian agriculture. 

The grand promenade is along the Boulevard de la Republique, 
above the quays, beneath the corridors of the great hotels, and around 
the Place du Gouvernment. These wide French streets and boule- 
vards are the cleanest and most pleasant thoroughfares ; but the narrow 
lanes that branch out from them and climb the hill are by far the 
dirtiest and most interesting. Such are the Rue de la Kasba, the 



l6o THE KNOCKABOUT CLUB IN NORTH AFRICA. 

Rue Kleber, Ben AH, and La Mer Rouge. In the Rue de la Mer 
Rouge one must ascend by steps, five hundred in number, and of 
course no carriage can enter. But its steepness and steps offer no 
obstacle to the donkeys, who crowd you against the walls at un- 
expected corners and act as though they owned the entire alley. 
Cautiously threading your way along and up this tortuous street, 
you have glimpses of the Orient that will repa}^ all your exertion ; 
of Arab dens, swarms of half-naked children, rows of Arab shoes 
with their heels chopped off, peeps into dimly lighted dens, from 
the obscurity of which gleam out wolfishly the eyes of masculine 
Arabs, while a more tender light may at rare intervals gladden you 
from the orbs of some Moorish damsel. 

If we climb high enough, we shall reach certain corners where 
we can look back over the roofs, and out through the rifts in the 
walls, to the shining sea beyond. Climbing yet higher, we reach 
the Kasba, the ancient palace of the Deys, the foundations of 
which were begun in 1506. It caps the summit of the hill, the 
apex of the shining triangle of white houses and mosques lying 
against the Sahel. It was formerly defended by two hundred pieces 
of artillery, and contained vast treasure, even at the capture by the 
French. A fine mosque and minaret stand near, and the ornamental 
tiles are yet to be seen, in places, suggestive of former elegance. 
Here dwelt those semi-savage Turks and Moors whose barbarities 
held Christians in awe for several centuries. 

In the centre of the Place du Gouvernment is a fine equestrian 
statue of the Duke d'Orleans, and on one side a large mosque 
with a square minaret about ninety feet high, in which is a clock. 
This mosque, Djamaa el Djelid, was planned, it is said, by a Genoese, 
a prisoner here in 1660, who was promised liberty for his work; 
but as he made the ground-plan in the form of a cross, he only 
obtained his liberty by being literally blown from the mouth of 
a cannon. In the parlance of the day, he was fired. A more 




DOOR OF MOSQUE OF BOU MEDINA. 



IN THE CORSAIRS' STRONGHOLD. 1 63 

ancient mosque, said to have been erected in the eleventh century, 
is the Djamaa el Kebir, in the Rue de la Marine, very near to 
the other. Its interior is like that of all mosques, with massive 
columns supporting the roof upon Moorish arches. Coarse matting 
covers the floors, and protects it from the foot of the unbeliever. At 
the entrance to every mosque, or in the court, is a fountain where 
the Moslems wash their feet before entering this holy place. 

The Koran commands frequent ablution, though you would not 
believe it, looking at and smelling of the Arabs ; and you may 
be pardoned for assuming that the nomadic Bedouin always takes 
advantage of the clause in the Koran that allows him to substitute 
sand for water. Washing with sand is not nearly as expensive or 
troublesome as washing with water, — especially in the Sahara. 

A few lamps are hung here, and the only other objects to 
attract attention are the mimbar, or pulpit, and the mihrab, or 
holy niche toward Mecca. Of the mosque and the great square 
I one day secured a most interesting instantaneous photograph, 
just as a big black dog was crossing it, and a fine group of 
Moors were sweeping by in flowing robes. 

More than a hundred mosques are said to have stood in Algiers 
previous to the French invasion, but doubtless' many of them are 
merely koubbas. These may be seen dotting every hill-crest in the 
country, and occupying nearly every prominent situation in Algiers. 
The finest of these is that of Sidi Abd-er-Rahman, above the garden 
Marengo. This saint died in 147 1, and his beautiful mausoleum is 
hung with the richest silk drapery, banners, lamps, and ostrich eggs. 
It is called the most ancient sacred edifice, excepting the great 
mosque, of North Africa. The cemetery in front and around it is 
charming, in its quaintest tombs and headstones, where rest the 
ashes of many Mahometan rulers, the latest interred there being 
the Dey of Constantine. Below this enclosed cemetery lies an at- 
tractive spot, — the Jardin Marengo, — where many strange plants 



1 64 THE KNOCKABOUT CLUB IN NORTH AFRICA. 

flourish, where serpentine walks lead to glorious outlooks over the 
sea, and where coolness and shade ever invite the traveller to rest. 
In its centre stands an ornamental kiosk, decorated, and with fan- 
ciful tiles. Speaking of religious edifices, we should not neglect 
the French Cathedral, in the Place Malakoff, built on the site of 
the Mosque of Hassan. A broad flight of twenty-three steps leads 
to the entrance, within the portico, with its four black-veined marble 
columns. It is eligibly situated, though the small square in front is 
frequently filled with Arabs from the country, and men and women 
coming to market. 

More conspicuous, both from its position and its architecture, 
IS the famous Church of Our Lady of Africa, perched upon a com- 
manding promontory a short distance beyond the Bab el Oued, or 
Northern Gate. It is a grand structure, in the Romano-Byzantine 
style. This may be called the church of the sailors, as here are 
said masses especially for those lost at sea. To the brow of the 
promontory, every Sunday, the clergy march in procession, and 
perform funeral ceremonies above the vast grave yawning at their 
feet, — the sea. Upon a cross erected here I read this inscription : 
" Notre-Dame d'Afrique, S. Em. Le Cardinal Archbishop of Algiers 
and Carthage, Primate of Africa, has accorded in perpetuity an in- 
dulgence of one hundred days to those who will recite here a pater 
and an ave for the sailors who have perished in the sea, and those 
who have been in peril of death." 

Out in this direction and above the city the views from the 
hill-tops are beautiful. I remember one sunset view I got from 
a high hill where the observatory is situated, and the wild nature 
of the walks along the hill-crests and side-hills, past Arab gardens 
and holy tombs. Perched upon the highest summit of the Sahel 
is the great fortification known as Fort de I'Empereur, an ancient 
structure, first taken by the French when they attacked Algiers, 
and from which they held the Kasba and the city at their mercy. 



IN THE CORSAIRS' STRONGHOLD. 1 65 

Inside the city, again, one of the interesting places is the 
museum, in a building once the palace of the celebrated Mustapha 
Pacha. In its beautiful court we find some fascinating fragments 
of sculpture, including a gigantic statue of Neptune, a torso of 
Venus, a Faun and Hermaphrodite (all found in Africa), sculptured 
sarcophagi of the early years of Christianity, excellent mosaics, and 
a large library comprising many Arabian manuscripts. A grew- 
some thing shown here is a cast of Geronimo, an Algerian martyr 
of 1569. Geronimo (now Saint Geronimo) was an Arab boy who 
became converted to Christianity, and was martyred by the Algerines 
by being cast into a block of concrete and this block built into the 
wall of the fort. For three hundred years Geronimo lay there 
imbedded, and in 1853 the block was taken out and a plaster cast 
made of the mould in which he lay ; and to-day you may see 
this memento of Moslem barbarity, in the shape of the cast of his 
skeleton, showing the distorted shape, and even the very cords 
with which he was bound. 

Leaving the city by the southern gate, at several kilometers 
distance we find a delightful garden of all sorts of tropical plants 
and trees, called the Jardin d'Essai, — experimental garden. On the 
way we pass the broad parade-grounds where the soldiers manoeuvre, 
and where the Arabs camp with their camels. 

Above this is an Arab cemetery, which is much frequented on 
Fridays by the Moorish women. It contains the sacred tomb of 
Sidi Mohammed ben Abd-er-Rhaman bou Koberain, or the man 
with two tombs ! The most attractive district of Algiers is that 
beyond the Porte d'Isly, called Mustafa Superieur, where the houses 
of the European residents are mostly built, and where the numerous 
villas, many of them in the Moorish style, are surrounded with 
gardens. Here the summer palace of the governor-general is built, 
thoroughly Oriental in its architecture and tropical in its surround- 
ings. Judging from descriptions, it is of the same style of the 



1 66 



THE KNOCKABOUT CLUB IN NORTH AFRICA. 



famous palace of Ghizireh, in Cairo, with its Moorish arches, foun- 
tains, corridors. We are constantly reminded of the farther East, 
in our wanderings through Southern Spain and Northern Africa, 
and ever turning back toward the Orient, — toward Cairo and 
Damascus, — for the types of architecture here presented. 




CHAPTER X. 

ALL ABOUT THE ALGERIANS. 

^^mT is the Professor this time who asks to be heard, 
^^H and he says he cannot rest until he has disbur- 
^S^ dened himself of the information he has collected 
^^M relative to the Algerian aborigines. It is so gen- 
^^^pX^^MI erally believed that the Moors and the French 
now occupy solely this great country, that the 
general reader may be astonished to learn that they are by no 
means in the majority. Fortunately for him, during his investiga- 
tion he fell in with a little book in French which gave the history 
of these people, and without further prefatory explanation he here- 
with presents the gist of what he has translated. 

The ancients have left us no trustworthy documents upon those people who 
first settled Algiers. According to Sallust, the northern part of Africa was 
first inhabited by two native races, — the Getules and the Libyans. Later, the 
Getules united with the Medes and Persians, and from the fusion of these two 
elements — one autochthon, the other Asiatic — sprang the Numidians, repre- 
sented at the present day by the Berbers. This tradition from the annals of the 
Numidian kings easily accounts for facts being proven to-day. The dark type 
would represent the descendants of the Numidians, while the fair type, which 
is smaller in numbers, and is found especially in Morocco, would represent the 
posterity of the army of the Medes and the Persians. Tradition is also pre- 
served of a Semitic migration from Canaan, supporting which is the fact that 
the Berbers have always had more affinity with the Semitic race and the 
Canaanites than with the Aryans. 



1 68 THE KNOCKABOUT CLUB IN NORTH AFRICA, 

If we compare the Berbers of Algeria with the Touaregs, it is easily seen 
that a relationship exists between them ; they speak the same language, and 
their written characters are precisely the same as those in the rare inscriptions 
found in the mountains of Algeria and called Lybic. The origin of the 
ancestors of the Touaregs is evidently Oriental, from the Arabian peninsula on 
the borders of the Red Sea. Other invasions, either from Spain or from the 
Mediterranean coast, have without doubt co-operated in the formation of this 
Algerian people, the Berbers ; but this ethnic contingent had not, before the 
Arabian conquest, furnished an element important enough to modify any of the 
essential traits in the characteristic physiognomy of the primitive populations 
of Algiers. 

The monuments of large stones found in certain parts of Algiers are gener- 
ally attributed to migration of Aryan origin ; but this does not at all change 
the opinion concerning the little importance which has been assigned them. 
The small funeral monuments called choitcha and bazina, which have been 
found in the mountains of Aures, are probably to be attributed to the autoch- 
thonic races; they were later imitated by the Numidian kings in the Madg- 
hasen, which is a sort of colossal bazina. The so-called *'Tomb of the Christian " 
is an imitation of more recent date of these primitive tombs. All these monu- 
ments are built on the same plan, and are artificial hillocks covered with ma- 
sonry, in shape a truncate cone, elliptical or circular at the base. Traces of the 
ancient worship of the Berbers have entirely disappeared. From the finding of 
Megalithic monuments in Spain, some writers have supposed an Aryan inva- 
sion through Europe, across the Straits of Gibraltar, after the death of Her- 
cules ; but this is not so probable as the invasion along the lines of the African 
coast. An invasion of Iberians (from Spain) is not very certain ; and as to the 
Hellenes, they did not reach Algeria. The first people who in historic times 
came to settle in Algiers are the Phoenicians ; but they came at first merely for 
trade, and had no perceptible effect upon the native types. 

It was quite the opposite with the Moslem conquest ; for from the first the 
Arabs imposed their religion and their language upon the greater number of 
the Inhabitants. In the plains, their influence was such that it soon became 
impossible to distinguish the victors from the vanquished. The mountaineers 
resisted longer, but finally became zealous converts to Islamlsm. 

In consequence of their invasion of Spain, and the struggles of all kinds 
they had to undergo, it was not long before the Arabs themselves disappeared 
from Algiers; but another Invasion took place in the eleventh century, and 
after having ravaged the country, the greater part of these tribes settled in the 
southeastern part of Algeria, near the frontiers of Morocco, where they are now 




ARAB WOMEN OF THE INTERIOR. 



ALL ABOUT THE ALGERIANS. 



171 



installed. A few even went into the interior of Morocco and helped by their 
arms to establish the dynasty which is reigning to-day. The French conquest 
is so recent that we can hardly estimate already the probable effect upon the 
natives of Algeria. Up to this time France has not been able to give much 
attention to the transformation of the people here ; she has had too much to do 
in seeking to assure peace throughout the country : first, by means of arms ; 
next, by the implantation of a European element large enough to insure re- 
spect from the vanquished. Thus by the side of the different races established 
in Algeria there is found by the union of the French with the other Europeans 
in the country, especially with the Spaniards and Italians, a new ethnical ele- 
ment whose representatives are already called by the distinctive term of Alge- 
rians. Though still few in numbers, this race has tendencies clearly enough 
defined to be noticed. The ethnographer finds the following element in 
Algeria: (i) the true Berbers, (2) the Arab Berbers, (3) the Arabs, (4) the 
Algerians, (5) the Jews. As to the khonloiighlis, or half-breeds, children of 
Turks and native women, and the negroes, they are so few as scarcely to merit 
special mention. In round numbers, there may be a milHon Berbers, fifteen 
hundred thousand Arab Berbers, five hundred thousand Arabs, five hundred 
thousand Europeans, including the Algerians, and thirty-five thousand Jews. 
Most of the blacks are found in the oases, negroes from the Soudan ; the kJion- 
loiighlis are found in the cities, where there were formerly strong Turkish garri- 
sons, and they occupy, as then, inferior governmental positions. 

The dark type of the primitive population greatly resembles the Arab type, 
their distinctive features less accentuated in the Arab Berbers. Among the 
Berbers the bones of the skull are excessively hard and thick, and the children 
of their own accord practise striking the hardest objects with their heads. All 
natives wear the beard, though the head is completely shaven, with the excep- 
tion of a tuft of hair on the very top. The members of certain brotherhoods 
often let this tuft grow until they can braid it. Circumcision is practised on all 
male children about the age of eleven years. 

It is impossible to trace, even approximately, the physical characteristics of 
the new Algerian race, whose existence has but just commenced. The Berbers 
of the mountains inhabit houses grouped together into small villages, or peaks 
and hill-crests difficult of access. Their domestic animals are under the same 
roof, and separated from the family only by a low wall. No European could 
long endure the fatal emanations sent forth from these holes, where air and 
light enter only through one low door. The Berber costume consists of a long 
shirt, over which is the biinious ; the legs, arms, and in summer the head, are 
generally bare. The women's costume consists simply of a woollen, shirt-like 



172 



THE KNOCKABOUT CLUB IN NORTH AFRICA. 



garment, belted around the waist. A handkerchief around the head, immense 
earrings, necklace, bracelets, and anklet rings, complete the attire. Men and 
women wear their clothes till they fall to pieces ; sometimes they may patch 
them, but they never wash them! There is little variety to their food, their 
most common dish being the cous-coils, or lumps of flour cooked with the steam 
from the broth of meat, and strongly seasoned with butter or oil ; add to this 
various fruits, such as dried grapes and figs, artichokes, beans, and peas. The 
Arab Berbers live sometimes mg07irbis, or huts of branches, sometimes in tents 
made of camel's-hair. 

The language has never been subject to literary culture ; the only vestiges 
consist of translations of stories, of books on canonical law or on theology, 
written in Arabic. The Arab Berbers speak an Arab dialect, which contains 
but a very few native words. As a rule, the farther you go into the desert, the 
purer the Arabic spoken by the people. The Algerians, of course, speak the 
French, and generally without the slightest accent. Certain Arab words, as 
razzia, have even found a place in the Dictionary of the Academy (French). 
In Algeria, especially in Algiers (the city), they are quite active in scientific 
matters, but have produced very few works purely literary. The native Jews 
speak among themselves a corrupted Arabic, in which are mixed a considera- 
ble number of French words with Arabic inflections. In the province of Oran 
Spanish is generally spoken. The Berbers are revengeful, courageous, honest 
among themselves, though rapidly learning the Arab vice of cheating the 
stranger. 

The social unit among the Berbers is the kharroiLaba, or the members of 
one family, sometimes admitting others ; and sometimes families and even vil- 
lages unite in common interest, and thus a little republic may be formed. Each 
village is governed by an Amin, or mayor, who is assisted by a few of the 
chief men of the village. The djemaa, or municipal council, meets once a week 
to deliberate on the affairs of the community, all the males from the age of 
sixteen taking part. The Moslems here have no real clergy, and the mufti 
is more a magistrate than a priest. The caste of the marabouts has great re- 
ligious influence, the quality of which is hereditary in the male line of all those 
who have led an exemplary religious life, or who have consecrated themselves 
exclusively to the defence of Islamism against the infidels. They used to live 
in convents. All do not know how to read, but to them is intrusted the educa- 
tion of the children. This consists in teaching them a few prayers, some chap- 
ters of the Koran, which they learn by heart, and a little reading and writing. 
Even the very " learned" marabouts never pass the line of instruction in Euro- 
pean primary schools. Though polygamy is authorized by the Koran, the 







MOORISH WOMEN AT HOME. 



ALL ABOUT THE ALGERIANS. 



175 



great majority of the Moslem population do not take advantage of it, simply 
because they cannot afford it, and for no other reason. The woman's position 
is practically that of a slave to her husband, and an ill-treated one at that. 
Sabbatical rest is unknown to the Moslems ; the Friday service, at which they 
are obliged to assist, lasts but an hour, and they employ the rest of the day 
in their usual labors. 

Of very warlike nature, the Arab Berbers, as well as the Arabs, seize upon 
the most trivial pretext to use their arms, and make a razzia, or pillage, of a 
neighboring territory. 




A BRmE BEING CONDUCTED TO HER HUSBAND'S HOUSE. 



On the plains, life is comparatively easy, seed-time and harvest taking up 
about three months in the year, the rest being spent in idleness. The cattle, 
sheep, and horses require only to be led to fresh pastures, and are attended by 
the children. The women alone make the articles indispensable for all, such 
as the Jiaiks and burnotiscs, the chief articles of clothing. The men make the 
wooden part of their ploughs, and plait baskets and ropes, which, with a two- 
edged pickaxe, made by a blacksmith, constitute their stock of agricultural 



176 THE KNOCKABOUT CLUB IN NORTH AFRICA. 

tools. Earthen and wooden dishes, a pitcher and a kettle, comprise the 
kitchen and table utensils. The furniture consists of a few mats, a wooden 
chest, and sometimes a carpet. 

In the cities, industries are more active and diverse; there are found 
especially potters, dyers, armorers, blacksmiths, tinkers, carpenters, tanners, and 
an incredible number of shoemakers, which seems surprising in a country 
where so many of the people go barefoot. The Arab woman of the town has 
greater freedom and less work than the country woman. Every Thursday the 
city women pass the afternoon at the Moorish baths, where they wear the most 
beautiful toilets. Friday they go to the cemetery, less in regard to the dead 
than to take the air in perfect liberty. This seems a strange place for a reunion, 
but is probably selected as being less exposed to the gaze of strangers. Their 
morals are said to be very loose. 

Now, as to matters of history. After the destruction of Carthage, the 
Romans, little by little, extended their power over the whole of Algeria. In 
at first sustaining Masinissa against Syphax, they determined the creation of 
a Numidian kingdom, whose capital was Cirta (Constantine) ; numerous Roman 
colonies coming into Algeria precipitated the downfall of the Numidian dynasty. 
Jugurtha, frightened by the leading role taken by the Romans in his native land, 
sought to reconquer it, but was defeated and taken a captive to Rome about 
B. C. 106. Roman rule was not imposed without trouble, and the confidence of 
the natives was never won ; so that when the Vandals came they made easy 
victories, and founded an empire which lasted from 423 to 5 S3 A. D. This empire 
was destroyed by Behsarius, but the Byzantine occupation met with the greatest 
resistance from the natives, who were hardly subdued before the Arabs, in their 
turn, came to conquer northern Africa. It was in 646 that the Arabs arrived, 
and after a fierce struggle converted the Berbers to Islamism so complete that 
they were the most zealous invaders of Spain, for the propagation of the faith, 
in the year 711. But the Moslems were divided into different sects, and thus 
their conquest by the Turks, in 15 15, was made quite easy. Turkish rule con- 
tinued until the French occupation, in 1830; and as the tribes were aUowed to 
be governed by their same caids, beys, and aghes, they accepted the change of 
government without great disquiet. But the French, unhke the Turks, desired 
a territorial conquest ; hence the numerous and bloody revolts, only suppressed 
after years of bloodshed. To-day all the tribes have lost the freedom they en- 
joyed under the Turks ; the natives are directly governed by agents in the pay 
of France, and their laws are greatly simplified. They have preserved all the 
practices of their religion, and the rare attempts at proselytism, either by the 
Protestants or Romanists, have been without result. The principal Arab settle- 



ALL ABOUT THE ALGERIANS. 



177 



ments of those hordes who came here, driven by hunger from the shores of the 
Red Sea, have been in the southern parts of the province of Oran (Tlemcen) 
and in Morocco. The nomadic hfe has such a charm for those who have tried 
it in their youth, that it is impossible even to think of drawing the Arabs of the 
high plateaus, or of the Saharian region, from this mode of existence. Those 
long and constant peregrinations keep the body 
well and strong; and the heat of the sun, warm- 
ing alike the body and brain, develops an ex- 
uberant imagination, which gives the nomads 
the highest value of their pleasures. They are 
like sailors in their love of the monotony of 
vast expanses and solitude. The Berbers are 
stupid, and have no literature; but the Arab 
Berbers enjoy the refined delights of the mind 
with a veritable dilettanteism, and listen for 
hours to the bards who traverse the land and 
charm by their endless recitals the long hours 
of their vacant, monotonous existence. 

To conclude, and to summarize. The native 
races of Algeria possess qualities sufficient io 
bring them, in the near future, to a level with 
the average European, but they cannot be ex- 
pected to attain this result by themselves ; it is 
indispensable that they should be guided by a 
firm hand and intelligent direction. Notwith- 
standing the inherent difficulties of the conquest, 
France has already sought to ameliorate their 
material existence, and several years ago she 
began the work of moral and intellectual reform 
by the application of special laws for the instruc- 
tion of the natives. Though the taking of Algiers 

dates from 1830, it is but just to recollect that the pacification of Kabylia was 
not completed until i860, and there have been serious revolts as late as 1871. 

France has undertaken a great work, and she has shown her fitness for the 
task of civilizing all Northern Africa. Her Algerian colony, in truth, is vastly 
better governed than France herself 

Now, since our readers have been so patient with us as to read 
this description of the Berbers, w^e will treat them to a story which we 




THE ARAB S SONG OF VICTORY. 



I ^S THE KNOCKABOUT CLUB IN NORTH AFRICA, 

find in a book of adventures in Algiers. It is an amusing account of 
how a conceited young lion came to grief. 

THE CONCEITED YOUNG LION. 

Among the lords of Mount Aures there once lived and loved a lioness, 
who, though long wedded, had never yet become a mother. But the event so 
devoutly prayed for was at length realized, and one morning's sun, as it poured 
upon the broad roof of the cedar and lotus, and glinted down among grape- 
vines and olives, at last played upon and brightened one tawny cub, that 
nestled in its warm bed of leaves beneath. With long walks and simple diet 
the lioness strengthened her infant's frame, and with good counsel she fortified 
his understanding. Above all things she warned him to beware of the seed 
of the woman. 

As the weeks fled by, the strength of the young lion increased. His limbs 
developed their muscles, his mane came out little by little, and his voice, at 
first so weak, and whining like a girl's, became so valorous that the flocks when 
they heard it kicked up their heels and scampered to the doitars. One day he 
came to his mother, saying, — 

" Now I am strong and courageous ; the seed of the woman I can hold down 
with one paw. I think I will go out and teach him obedience." 

The mother, frightened at this foolhardy bravery, endeavored to dissuade 
him from the attempt ; but all her efforts were unheeded, or answered only by 
a pettish growl. Not being able to turn his determination, she renewed her 
prudent counsels, and with a fond lick or two of her caressing tongue gave him 
to the charge of Allah and the Prophet. The young lion bounded bravely out 
of the jungle that had cradled his cubbish hours, and resolutely gained the 
ridge of the mountains. For a long time he walked boldly on, without seeing 
anything worthy his steel. Fox and stag and light gazelle vanished as he came, 
his very voice stilled the forest around him, and his young heart swelled high 
with triumph. 

Presently he saw a bull on one of the plains below him, his horns like pine- 
trees, his eyes darting red fire, his tail swinging back and forth like a thrasher's 
flail, and his hoofs tearing the sod from the earth and scattering it like hail. 

*' Ha, ha ! " said the young lion, " there is a warlike creature, that might 
well be called the seed of the woman, that rules the earth. That is my enemy ; 
I will march at him." 

He walked up with a fierce air to the bull, and in a tone of great emphasis 
demanded, "Are you the seed of the woman?" 



ALL ABOUT THE ALGERIANS. 



179 



The bull dropped his tail and replied : — 

" My dear friend, you are foolish. The courage that God has given to the 
seed of the woman he has granted to no other living creature. Do you know 
how he treats me and my race? He puts yokes over our necks and makes us 
do his work. If we are idle he beats us with goads ; and when too old to act 
longer as his servants, he slays us and divides our flesh to feed his wives and 
children." 




THE CONCEITED YOUNG LION. 



The lion listened to this story ; a look of sage wonder mantled his counte- 
nance, and he continued his course. After walking a little while, he presently 
encountered face to face a camel, that was pasturing on a delicate patch of 
thistles. 

"This time I have hit it," said the lion to himself; then to the camel he 
said, " Sirrah, are you the seed of the woman? " 

The camel laughed outright as he tilted up his long neck from the thistle- 
bed. " You have n't hit it at all, Master Lion, though you are so wise. What 
do you want of the seed of the woman? If you will heed the advice of a 
stranger who has known him a long while, you will keep the greatest dis- 
tance from him you can. Look at me. Are you able to bend my knees to 
the earth, to bind pack after pack on my back, and then mounting yourself on 
the top of all, to guide me and drive me over the desert? That is what tlic 
person you seek does to me every day ; and if he chooses to cut my stomach 



I So THE KNOCKABOUT CLUB IN NORTH AFRICA. 

open to find water for his children, I cannot resist. Now, then, do you fancy 
the acquaintance? If so, you have only to go ahead, and you will find him." 

" You are a poltroon, you cowardly camel ! " retorted the Hon, in a disdain- 
ful tone. " Your old woman's tales and the stories of the bull only enter one 
ear to go out the other; I will continue my road." 

In a few minutes he saw a horse coursing the fields like the wind ; his neigh 
was music on the air, and his breath was white like smoke. 

" Holloa ! " called the lion from afar. '* I am looking for the son of the 
woman; are you not he?" 

*' Are you speaking to me? " said the horse. 

" Who else is there to speak to? " 

'' Then go somewhere else with your jokes, for I have never found any jok- 
ing in connection with that name. The son of the woman, prithee ! he has sad- 
dled and bridled me, though I am swift on the foot, and curbs me to his will." 

" Indeed 1 " said the lion, as his eyes began to open visibly. 

" Indeed, it is true ; and then he sits on my back, and, carry him fast as I 
,may, he drives the spurs into my side until the sands are dotted with my 
Hood." 

" Oh ! " said the lion, in a voice that made the horse take to his heels. The 
perspiration started under his mane, and he began to think he had not looked 
before he had leaped. However, it was too late to doubt, and he pushed on. 

The plain was passed, and a forest rose before him on the side of a purling 
brook, and from time to time, like the call of a bell-bird, he heard the clear 
sound of a woodman's axe. Entering the woods, guided by the noise, he saw 
before him the wood-chopper. 

"This fluttering jay-bird may tell me something about what I am seeking," 
muttered the lion, " though he is so tattered and poor he may not even have 
heard of the. great ones of the earth. God help you, my poor creature! I 
have been all day hunting after the seed of the woman ; can you tell me where 
I must go to find him? " 

"Good gracious! most noble sir, he's not hard getting at; I'll go and 
fetch him. But please, sir, while I am gone, this log I am splitting won't stay 
open unless you will hold it for me. Just put your paw in this crack ; I won't 
be gone a minute." 

The lion with a gracious condescension inserted his paw in the crevice, 
when the wily \voodman 4<nocked away the wedge that held it open, and the 
log, springing together, held the lion's paw with a grip like a vise. He strug- 
gled and growled in vain. The woodman then cut a dozen stout cudgels, and 
taking the lion by the tail with one hand, administered with the other such an 



ALL ABOUT THE ALGERIANS. 



1«I 




awful bastinado that the poor creature's back was beaten softer than his belly. 

At length, when strength and sticks were all worn out, he released his prisoner 

by driving in another wedge, telhng him to go home and relate to his family 

that if they would all come there, the seed of the woman would give them the 

same lesson. The poor lion took his way home, half dead with shame and 

pain, and limping like a rabbit. The mother was out watching for the return 

of her hopeful, and when 

she saw him coming in this 

wretched plight she roared 

with horror and indignation, 

and bitterly reproached him 

for his folly. She then led 

him in, and having put him 

on her best bed, she licked 

his wounds and administered 

to him all the care that art 

and love could suggest. The 

young lion then told over his 

adventures. "the lions began to arrive." 

The mother said, '* Do you 
remain here quietly. I will summon all the lions of the mountain, and leading 
them myself, I will avenge your insults, my poor child." And great tears of 
sympathy and anger rolled down her hairy cheeks while speaking. 

She then went out and roused all the forces of the mountain, and presently 
with the rising sun the lions began to arrive, trooping past like kings. Pointing 
out the formidable squadron to her son, she said, "Do you think they can 
avenge you?" 

** Yes, certainly; but I would rather do it myself" 

"Rise and march with us, then," said the proud mother; and the young 
lion rose and led the van. The terrible band then started for the forest by the 
purling brook. As it came, terrified Nature fled away. The wood-chopper, 
seeing its approach, cried out, — 

" I am a miserable sinner; this day will I see the prophet ! " Then recover- 
ing himself a little, he hugged a big tree and shinned up to the top. 

The leonine army came to the foot of the tree ; but alas ! their enemy was 
at the top and they at the bottom, and there was no manoeuvre in their system 
of warfare adapted for such a position. They held a council of war. The 
young lion was among the speakers, and proposed the following plan : — 

" I will stand against the tree ; let another of you mount my shoulders, 



1 82 THE KNOCKABOUT CLUB IN NORTH AFRICA. 

taking the same position, and then another and another, until we form a ladder 
that will reach the wretch and drag him down." 

This counsel was considered good, and forthwith a pyramid of lions might 
have been seen climbing up the side of the tree, one above another, and gradu- 
ally approaching the refugee. The topmost round of the ladder was made, 
and the wood-cutter almost reached, when he cried out in a loud voice, — 

*' Hold on till I cut a cudgel and give that fellow at the bottom another 
drubbing ! " 

The sound of this voice, so dreadful, but above all the remembrance of the 
cudgelling he had received, so frightened the young lion that was at the bot- 
tom of the pyramid, that he jumped out from under his comrades, and took 
to his heels with surprising agility. The ladder of lions, suddenly deprived of 
its support, came tumbling to the ground with a great crash. They fell from 
such a prodigious height that those not killed were stunned and wounded, 
and all lay moaning in a heap. Then the wood-cutter slipped down and seized 
his axe. He killed all those that were wounded, and stripping the skins 
from them all, he gayly marched to his douar^ the richest man from Cairo 
to Timbuctoo. 




CHAPTER XL 

A LION-HUNT IN THE AURES MOUNTAINS. 

IN going from Algiers to Constantine you have a 
taste of North African quality in the great variety 
of scene and the glimpses into history afforded by 
the towns along the line. Though much of the 
route is most monotonous, yet there are grand 
mountains, gloomy gorges and ravines where yet 
lurk the lion and the panther. Such gorges are the Portes de Fer, 
near the station of Sidi Brahem. Many of the towns have mourn- 
ful memories of the native revolts of 1871, such as that of Palaestro, 
a village seventy-seven kilometers from Algiers, whose population 
of Tyrolese, French, and Spanish immigrants was massacred in a 
manner peculiarly atrocious. At two hundred and ninety-four kilo- 
meters from Algiers we reach Setif, a very ancient city, known to 
the Romans as Sitifi Colonia, a flourishing colony in the Middle 
Ages. Many Roman remains may still be seen here. 

A great future is predicted for Setif, as it is high and healthy, 
and is geographically well situated, especially with reference to the 
railway lines from the ports Bougie and Djigelli. The port of 
Bougie, by the way, is the place that gave the name to the French 
candle ; and who does not remember the frequent recurrence of 
the everlasting bougie, un franc, in his hotel bill 1 Not far from 
the station of Telegma, about forty kilometers from Constantine, the 
most beautiful remains of Roman art in Africa were discovered in 



184 ^-^-^ KNOCKABOUT CLUB IN NORTH AFRICA. 

1878, consisting of buildings once belonging to the celebrated Roman, 
Pompeianus, pro-consul of Africa in the reign of Honorius. The 
mosaic floors are supposed to be of the first or second century, 
and represent domestic and hunting scenes with great beauty and 
fidelity. 

The objective point of this long railroad ride is the famous city 
of Constantine, declared to be the most picturesque, as to its natu- 
ral situation, in the world. It covers the summit platform of a 
rock plateau square in shape, with perpendicular sides rising nearly 
one thousand feet, in places, above the river Roummel, which 
flows around it on the north and east. This river, flowing through 
its canon walls, is spanned by four natural bridges of rock, one 
of which supports the bridge by which the city is reached. El 
Kantara. Constantine was a sister city of Carthage, whose king 
at one time, Narva (who reigned about 230 B.C.), was married to 
a sister of Hannibal. It was then known as Cirta, and the capi- 
tal of Numidia, until its name was changed to Constantine, about 
the year 313. 

It is a city celebrated in ecclesiastical history also, and con- 
nected with the great Saint Augustine and the early Christian bishops 
of Africa. To the student of ecclesiastical history, especially that 
period when Africa and Egypt were brought under the dominion 
of the Church, how fascinating must this city appear ! Relics of 
Romans, Churchmen, Arabs, Vandals, are found here on every side. 
The last of the Deys here built a magnificent palace that the 
world may well come to now, and gaze at in wonder. But this 
city, this ancient capital, came under French rule in 1837, and the 
last of those miserable Moors and Turks, so long in power, were 
banished from the country. 

I have not time to describe its interesting features, but the 
word of a traveller may be taken that it is worth a long, long 
journey to see. Monuments with Latin inscriptions may be found 



A LION-HUNT IN THE AURES MOUNTAINS, 



185 



on every hand, and a Reman aqueduct, repaired, brings water to 

the city. 

From Constantine — or rather from the port of PhiHppeville, 

north of it — a raih^oad drops southwardly into the desert. At 




A LION AND A LIONESS. 



present you can go no farther than Biskra, two hundred and thirty 
kilometers, whence roads or trails branch out into the unknown. 
From Batna, about midway this journey, one may reach the little- 
known Aures Mountains, where reside people supposed to be 



l86 THE KNOCKABOUT CLUB TN NORTH AFRICA. 

descended from mixed Rom.ans, Byzantines, and Vandals, and whose 
women are said to be among the handsomest in the world. 

Other pursuits than agriculture draw hither many strangers, 
especially the pursuit of sport; but if the farmers' rewards are 
meagre, so are the returns of the sportsmen. The season for shoot- 
ing lasts from September to February, and, as in France and all 
her colonial possessions, one must have a permis de chasse. Par- 
tridges, snipe, duck, and woodcock are sometimes found, but not 
in abundance. Yet there are many wild animals remaining in this 
country, where " Gerard the Lion-killer" found such sport in his time. 
In the twelve years between 1873 and 1884, inclusive, above thirty thou- 
sand wild animals were killed, for which rewards „were paid, including 
one hundred and eighty-one lions and a thousand panthers. 

The rarest sport is that of falconry, which certain of the Arabs 
indulge in at the south. It is said that the art of training falcons 
is hereditary, and it requires great skill and patience. The hawks 
are snared and hooded, and perched upon their master's shoulders, 
which are protected by strips of leather. They are fed only by 
their captors, and when they have become attached to them, after 
two months or so, they are taken to the field, hooded, and the 
hood removed only when the quarry is in sight, at which they 
fiercely dash. Falconry is carried on only by the chiefs, or Arabs 
of high caste, and the poor are not permitted to indulge, in it. 
The falcon is caught in a net, beneath which is a partridge or a 
hare. It is kept on a perch stuffed with hair, and subdued by 
being deprived of light and food for several days. 

Perhaps the most comical yet savage people we saw, were the 
porcupine-hunters, who prowled about the mountains armed with 
clubs. They take with them a boy clad in skins, who looks like a 
naked human spider, and who crawls into the hole after the porcu- 
pine, pulling him out for the men to despatch with their clubs; after 
which they have a great feast. 



A LION-HUNT IN THE AURES MOUNTAINS. 1 87 

But what interested our party most, when we reached the region 
of the Aures Mountains, was that we were now on the old hunting- 
ground of " Gerard the Lion-killer," who killed so many lions some 
forty years ago. His headquarters were about Guelma, in the prov- 
ince of Constantine and the country of the Ouled Hamza. The 
Mahouna, he says, was the pleasure-garden of the lions. 

Between Constantine and Batna there may be * seen the ruined 
minaret of an old convent-mosque, called Juna-el-Bechira, which has 
a most tragic history. For tradition says that the entire faculty of 
this old convent-college, some forty in number, were devoured by lions. 
One after another, sometimes in the garden, sometimes at the spring 
where they went for water, the monks were pounced upon and car- 
ried away by the king of beasts, until the two or three remaining 
fled in terror from the place. We did not have the opportunity for 
a lion-hunt, because the few lions remaining are so shy that even the 
Arabs seldom see them ; but as we are on the ground of some of the 
great Gerard's famous exploits, what can we do better than let him tell 
one of his stories in his own modest language ? 

THE LION-KILLER'S STORY. 

" On the desert, when an Arab, the owner of a large tent, marries a wife, 
he bids all the world to the wedding, and the guests go to the bride's tent 
to conduct her to her new home. The girl is carried in a palanquin, and the 
guests march by her side, making the night gay with music and a general 
fusillade. 

" But as all men do not herd the same number of cattle, so all marriages 
are not alike. If one is honored by a great cortege, and gay cavaliers, rich in 
trappings and well-earned name, caracole by the side of the future spouse, 
another groom may not have the means even to pay the fiddler who makes 
the music. Smail, a young warrior of our tribe, belonged to this latter class, 
and his last crown had been spent to endow the bride. His retinue was con- 
fined to his near relatives, and on the auspicious day he came on foot to the tent 
of his future father-in-law, like a very peasant. Here the brave couple and their 
friends feasted on mutton and coiiscousson ; and when the repast was done they 



1 88 THE KNOCKABOUT CLUB IN NORTH AFRICA. 

fired away with powder and ball, taking care to reserve enough to use, in case 
of need, on their way home. 

" The dollar of the husband was only a league and a half away. It was a 
bright moonlight evening, and the party numbered nine guns ; what was there 
to make them afraid? But is it not when the tent is gayest, that trouble draws 
the curtain and steps in at the door? Truly the good people were gay, and 
as they returned, in merry mood, they sang as they frolicked over the sand. 
Small walked at the head of the procession with his dark-eyed wife, and his 
head was bent and his voice was low, whispering soft promises of the pleasures 
that were awaiting them under his tent. His friends were behind, discreetly 
loitering at a little distance, and from time to time their guns aw^oke the echoes 
among the distant hills. But on a sudden the Devil, who had not been bidden 
to the wedding, presented himself before them in the shape of an enormous lion, 
and crouched down in the very path of the procession ! 

'* What was to be done? They were half-way between the two douars, 
and it was as dangerous to return as to advance. The occasion to win the 
devotion of his wife for*ever was too tempting for Small to allow it to pass. The 
guns were all loaded w4th ball, the bride was placed in the middle of a hollow 
square formed by the guests, — brave men all, — and the escort marched on, led 
by the bridegroom. They came to within thirty paces of the lion, and yet he 
moved not. Smail ordered the party to halt, and then saying to his wife, ' Judge 
if you have married a man or not,' he walked straight up to the wild beast, 
summoning him in a loud voice to clear the road. At twenty paces the lion 
raised its monstrous head and prepared to spring. Smail, in spite of the cries 
of his wife and the entreaties of his friends, who counselled a retreat, bent one 
knee to the earth, took aim, and fired. The lion, wounded by the shot, sprang 
on the husband, hurled him to the earth, tore him in pieces in the twinkling 
of an eye, and then charged the group, in the middle of which stood the 
bride. 

" ' Let no man fire,' shouted the father of Smail, * until he is within gun's 
length ! ' 

*' But where is the man who is strong enough at heart to await, with firm 
foot and steady hand, this thunderbolt of hell which is called a lion, when with 
flowing mane, blazing eye, and open mouth he charges on him with immense 
bounds? All fired at once, without regarding whither their balls went, and the 
lion fell upon the group, dashing them hither and thither, breaking the bones 
and tearing the flesh of all he found within reach. Nevertheless, some escaped, 
carrying with them the bride half dead with terror. A moment more, and the 
lion was after them; there was no refuge and no defence, and the wounded 




■I 



|i||||||||llllll|lllli|i|||lllllllililllliMlliiiiiiimiiiiliiii3'mmiiii'iii 




A LION-HUNT IN THE AURES MOUNTAINS. 



191 



beast seized and tore to pieces one after another, until but one was left of the 
party. He reached the foot of a steep rock, on which he placed the woman, 
and then began chmbing up after her. He had already reached twice the height 
of a horseman, when the lion gained the-rock as furious as ever. With a single 




A MOUNTAIN PASS IN TUNIS. 



bound he seized the unfortunate man by the leg and dragged him backward to 
the ground, while the woman reached the summit of the rock, from whose 
inaccessible height she watched the horrid spectacle, — the death-agony of the 
last of her defenders. After one or two unsuccessful bounds the lion returned 



192 THE KNOCKABOUT CLUB IN NORTH AFRICA. 

to the dead body of his last victim, and commenced manghng and tearing it in 
small pieces, in revenge for the loss of the poor wife that looked down at him 
from above. The rest of the night passed slowly to the lonely woman. When 
the morning dawned, the hon retired to the mountain ; but he departed reluc- 
tantly, and not without stopping and returning more than once, with a covetous 
whine, for the cowering bride he had left behind. Shortly after he had gone, 
a group of horsemen appeared on the plain. The stricken bride, without any 
voice to call, waved her bridal veil as a signal of distress. They came to her 
at a gallop, and carried her to her father's tent, where she died the next night 
at the hour of the wedding." 

That was the Arab's story; but I will omit the exclamations, taunts, and 
reproaches, that were hurled at the murderer after it was finished. One after 
another they told their different tales, and it was not till late that the party 
broke up, — the Arabs to return to their tents, with many God's blessings for 
my success, and I to remain on the watch for the lion, with a native corporal 
of the spahis, whose brother was a sheik of this country. 

The path on which we were lying ascended the steep hillside, from a densely 
wooded ravine where the lion kept himself by day, to the high plateau on 
which the Arabs dwelt. At about one o'clock in the morning Saadi-bou-Nar, 
but little accustomed to these night-watches, pleaded guilty to being very 
sleepy, and stretched himself out behind me and slept most soundly. 

Up to this time the heavens had been serene and the moon clear; but soon 
clouds gathered in the west and came scudding past before a warm, sultry wind, 
the sky was overcast, the moon was gone, and the thunder rolled around us in 
heavy peals, announcing a coming tempest. Then the rain fell in torrents, and 
drenching my companion, he awoke, and we consulted for a moment about re- 
turning to \h&douar. But while we were talking, an Arab from the camp called 
out, " Beware ! the lion will come with the storm ! " 

This decided me to remain at my post, and I covered the locks of my gun 
with the skirts of my coat. Soon the rain ceased, like all rains that accompany 
a thunder-gust, and we only saw its passage b}^ the lightning that tracked the 
distant horizon; and the moon, more brilliant than ever, came in and out from 
the ^^Qcy clouds overhead. I took advantage of every one of these short in- 
stants of clear sky to survey the country about me, and to penetrate with a 
glance each clump of trees or fallen log; and it was in one of these brief mo- 
ments that, all of a sudden, I thought I saw a lion, I waited breathless till the 
moon came out again. Yes, it was surely a lioji, standing motionless only a 
few paces from the camp! Accustomed to see fires lighted at every tent, to 
hear a hundred dogs barking in terror, and to see the men of the camp hurling 



A LION-HUNT IN THE AURES MOUNTAINS. 



193 



lighted brands at him, he without doubt was at loss to explain the rather sus- 
picious silence that reigned around him. While I was turning slowly around, 
in order to take better aim without being seen by the animal, a cloud shut out 




/..j,/-7i/</:/^ 



MEDJERDAB, THE MOST IMPORTANT RIVER IN TUNIS. 



the moon. But at last the scud passed, and the moonlight, dearer to me than 
the most beautiful sunshine, illuminated the picture, and again showed me the 
lion still standing in the same place. I saw him the better as he was so much 
raised above me, and he loomed up proudly magnificent, standing as he was in 
majestic repose, with his head high in air, and his flowing mane undulating in 
the wind and fallin"" to his knees. It was a black lion, of noble form and the 
largest size. As he presented his side to me, I aimed just behind his shoulder, 
and fired. I heard a fierce roar of mingled pain and rage echoing up the hills 
with the report of the gun, and then from under the smoke I saiv the lion 
boimdincr upon nie! 

Saadi-bou-Nar, roused the second time that night from his slumber, sprang 
to his gun, and was about to fire over my shoulder. With a motion of my arm 
I pushed aside the barrel of his gun, and when the beast, still roaring furiously, 
was within three steps of me, I fired my second barrel directly into his breast. 

13 



194 



THE KNOCKABOUT CLUB IN NORTH AFRICA. 



Before I could seize my companion's gun the lion rolled at my feet, bathing 
them in the blood that leaped in torrents from his throat ! He had fallen dead 
so near me that I could have touched him from where I stood. 

At the first moment I thought I was dreaming, and that it was impossible 
that the huge bulk which lay motionless before me was the same animal which, 

endowed with superhu- 
r-' ^^>^.^ . .^ - ^-?^^-^--,-— #=^=5^^-^' man strength, and vomit- 

ing peals of thunder, 
was just before leaping 
through the air. But the 
cries of Saadi-bou-Nar, 
calling the Arabs to the 
scene, proved to me that 
it was no dream. I can- 
not explain the reason ; 
but the death of the lion 
did not give me the same 
pleasure as that of my 
first victim ; but how 
could it be otherwise? 

In looking for my 
balls, I found the first 
one, the one that had 
not killed, just behind 
the shoulder, where I had 
intended it to hit; and 
the second, that had been 
fired in haste, and almost 
at hazard, had been the 
one that was mortal. 
From this moment I 
learned that it does not 
suffice to aim correctly in 
orderto kill a lion, and that 
it is a feat infinitely more serious than I had at first supposed. But slowly my 
preoccupation became dissipated, and Httle by little, as I contemplated the 
lordly grace of my victim, and heard the reports of musketry carrying the fame 
of my victory from camp to camp, I became less thoughtful, and drank with 
pleasure the intoxicating cup of success. 




A MOSQUE IN TUNIS. 




CHAPTER XII. 

TUNIS, CARTHAGE, AND THE GREAT DESERT. 

E lingered long, and we reverently searched for some 
traces of the great lion-killer ; the Professor was 
also interested in the ethnology of the region, and 
would gladly have remained a month. There was 
yet ahead of us, however, a city of fame, Tunis, 
and another in ruins, Carthage, which all of us 
were impatient to behold. % 

Tunis, although a recent acquisition of the French, is certainly a 
portion of their possessions, — geographically a portion of Algiers, and 
united with all French Africa by the great railroad I have mentioned 
The Gulf of Tunis early attracted the attention of the Phoenician 
engagers, and here Carthage was founded, about 850 B.C. The city 
of Tunis occupies a position between the lakes, or lagoons, while 
the ancient Carthage was nearer the open gulf. Of its situation an 
English artist writes : — 

" No words can do it justice. The great bay is almost land-locked ; billowy 
peaks to the east; in the dim distance the blue hills of the Laghouan range, 
the mountains that look down upon the far-famed city of Kairwan ; directly in 
front the white houses of the Goletta, — the present harbor of Tunis ; away to 
the west the stony amphitheatre, rich with the memories of two thousand years, 
where once stood Carthage, the very spot from which Dido looked with long- 
ing eyes upon the white sails of her hero-lover as they floated over this lovely 
bay; and beyond Carthage, with its great college of St. Louis now dominating 
the spot, was the lofty peak on the edge of which is built the walled Arab town 
of Sidi bou Said. Everywhere there are fine hills in graceful outline sweeping 



196 



THE KNOCKABOUT CLUB IN NORTH AFRICA. 



down to the blue waters of the gulf, and everywhere strange tropical trees, lofty 
date-palms, and straggling prickly-pear. 

*' I know of no city except Constantinople that occupies a site which can be 
compared with this. Even that of Ephesus is inferior in splendor, if not in 
interest. The great city occupied an amphitheatre sloping gently down to the 
edge of the gulf." Such is the situation of Carthage. But, Delendo est Carthago. 
*' The impression to-day is one of intense disappointment. The Roman wish 
has been fulfilled, and of the once glorious Carthage not one stone remains 
standing above ground. 

*' The whole site of the city is strewn with the broken fragments of pottery, 
mosaics, sculptures, marbles, pillars, tiles. Everywhere, too, huge fallen masses 
of masonry are lying prone upon the earth. The site of Dido's palace is shown, 
and beyond the extensive cisterns vast subterranean structures with heavy 
vaulted roofs. In every case the masonry is of the most substantial character, 
showing how well the Phoenicians did their work." 




A VIEW OF THE NEW PORTION OF BISKRA. 



There is a rich field for excavation here. " Three towns lie atop 
each other, one Punic, one Roman, and the last Byzantine." Tunis, 
now the chief city of this great gulf, "grew out of the ashes of the 
Roman colony, and received its autonomy only with Islam. The 
Arabs destroyed all evidences of Christian culture, overthrew the 
temples, and with the fragments built their own mosques and 
palaces." 



TUNIS, CARTHAGE, AND THE GREAT DESERT. 1 99 

Though Tunis has been declared more Oriental than the 
Orient, than even Cairo and Damascus, yet the inter-communication 
afforded by the railroad has robbed it somewhat of its very distinc- 
tive character. Its bazaars may be more richly furnished than 
those of Algiers and Tlemcen, but not sufficiently to merit further 
description. 

Americans should not forget that it was at Tunis that John 
Howard Payne, author of " Home, Sweet Home," was at one time 
consul for our government. Here he died, and here lay buried 
many years, until his remains were taken to the United States several 
years ago, at the expense of Mr. Corcoran, of Washington. 

Leaving Tunis, now, let us make a journey toward and into the 
Great Desert. 

The finest oases are said to be south of Tunis, toward Tripoli, 
such as Sfax and Gabes, some of which contain from two to three 
hundred thousand palm-trees. In most of the oases the palm-groves 
are planted many feet below the general surface of the desert, in 
the aquiferous sand beneath the surface-crust of gypsum, where the 
semi-subterranean streams alone are found in circulation. Thus a 
mound of verdure may sometimes be seen rising dome-shaped above 
the sands, without any visible trunks to the trees. 

These oases, of course, are the result of springs of water, of 
streams that gush out from subterranean sources. While writing 
of this subject, it may be as well to sketch the natural divisions of 
North Africa in general, to show how climate is modified by the 
surface configuration. There are three generally accepted divisions: 
First, that littoral strip of territory called the Tell, consisting of 
fairly fertile cultivated land extending from the coast to the moun- 
tains and high plateaus, and varying from fifty to one hundred 
miles in width. The Atlas Mountains cross the territory with a 
general trend from southeast to northwest; from Cape Nun, on 
the Atlantic (Morocco), to Tunis, on the Mediterranean. They 



200 THE KNOCKABOUT CLUB IN NORTH AFRICA. 

approach wittiin thirty miles of the city of Algiers, and between 
their lateral ridges are fertile valleys, like the Metidja. South of 
the mountains and plateaus begins the Sahara, which may occupy 
as vast a territory as the geographers will admit. The scheme 
of converting the Sahara into an inland sea has been discussed ; but I 
think it is now abandoned as not feasible, or not likely to be of 
benefit if it were so converted. 

During our journey thither we met with clouds of locusts, which 
spread over the land, devouring every green thing. These locusts 
have been a great scourge to Algiers. The following account may 
give some idea of their ravages. 

*' In May, 1844, they appeared in such numbers that the richest agricultural 
districts were made deserts. The indolence of the natives and the unsettled 
condition of the country were against any systematic efforts to exterminate 
the little pests. Moreover, the superstitious natives charged the Christian 
conquerors with conjuring the evil one, and rebellions were the result. 

*' In March, 1885, the locusts again made their appearance. Two months 
later the districts Altmale, Bou-Saada, Boghar, Chellala, and Laghouat were, 
overrun, and the fields stripped of every kind of growth. In the spring of 1886 
the locusts reappeared. This year the Sirocco — that terrible hot wave of the 
desert — swept over Algiers with unusual fierceness, charged with the sand of 
the great Sahara, and with millions and millions of locusts. In a few days the 
whole country was covered with these pests. Their ravages are terrible. The 
cattle, of which the colony contained sixteen million, are dying for want of 
nourishment, and a famine is threatening the European colonists. The govern- 
ment employs thousands of natives and all the available troops in a systematic 
effort to destroy the voracious little Insects. 

"Various devices are resorted to. Two such are most in favor, — the 
melnafas, and the appareils cypinotes. The former consists of cotton or woollen 
cloth of a very rough surface, which Is spread over the ground. The locusts 
are caught In the coating, are shaken together and turned into deep ditches or 
stamped to death. The appareils Cypriotes are sheets of muslin about two hun- 
dred feet long and three feet wide, stretched over* frames and placed upright 
along the path of the Invaders. It Is the habit of the locust not to turn in Its 
progress, but to endeavor to surmount every obstacle In Its way. It will try to 



TUNIS, CARTHAGE, AND THE GREAT DESERT. 



20I 



climb the cloth, which is beaten by sticks. The insects fall to the ground, are 
swept together and destroyed. The artillery also fires heavy charges of blank 
cartridges into the swarms, the cavalry is employed to stamp the insects into 
the ground, and the native troops are not furnished with rations of meat, in 
order to stimulate their appetite for the great national dish, — stewed locusts, 
broiled locusts, and locust raw. 







MOSQUE OF SIDI BEN FERDHA, BISKRA. 



" It is an ancient and sacred custom of the natives to eat these insects. 
Tradition has it that at the first appearance of the locusts Mahomet instructed 
his disciples not to destroy them. But one day the great prophet noticed on 
the wings of one of these insects an inscription in Hebrew characters, saying: 
* We are the soldiers of God ; we lay ninety-nine eggs. Whenever we shall lay 
one hundred, the universe will have been devoured by us.' Horrified at this 
sacrilege, the prophet straightway interviewed the Lord, and received the order 
that as a punishment of the locusts the faithful should kill and eat them. That 



202 



THE KNOCKABOUT CLUB IN NORTH AFRICA, 



the natives highly rehsh the dish appears from the saying : ' Next to the date 
the locust is the sweetest morsel' The Koran prohibits the flesh of animals not 
born; but the Mahometan doctors of law, as become wise and dutiful guardians 
of their flocks, denied that locusts were fish, that as such the common people 
might eat them, while the men in holy order should deny themselves this sweet 
morsel in order to avoid the temptation to gorge themselves." 




THE NATIVE QUARTER OF BISKRA. 



For the finest oases we must push on to Biskra, the terminal 
of the railroad projected In this direction. Biskra is a charming 
desert town, composed mainly of mud buildings, with a great palm- 
o-rove near and around it. The oasis of Biskra is said to contain 
one hundred thousand palm-trees ; and as it is abundantly supplied 
with water from runninor streams and artesian wells, it has smiling 



TUNIS, CARTHAGE, AND THE GREAT DESERT. 205 

fields and luxuriant gardens. Its climate is tropical, except during 
the winter months, and the air is pure and dry. Biskra, the 
" Queen of the Libyan," is the northernmost of that archipelago 
of oases that traverse the great sea of the desert. 

But I should not neglect to mention yet another village of the 
Libyan archipelago, about twelve or fifteen miles from Biskra, 
called Okba. Here also are beautiful oases, and here is probably 
the "oldest Mahometan monument in Africa," — the Mosque of 
Sidi Okba, an Arabian warrior who is said to have conquered this 
country in the sixtieth year of the Hegira ; and this memorial mosque 
is dated from the early years of the eighth century. It is about 
one hundred feet long, this primitive building, and from its minaret 
is a most magnificent view of the surrounding country. An in- 
scription here, in Cufic characters, is said to be "perhaps the oldest 
Arabian inscription in the world," and reads : " This is the tomb 
of Okba, son of Nafa. May God have mercy upon him." He 
and some three hundred of his men were massacred here by the 
Berbers, in the year of our era 882. 

A MOSQUE IN THE SAHARA DESERT. 

A discovery of much archaeological interest was recently made in the 
Algerian Sahara. M. Tarry, who has been carrying on work in connection 
with the proposed Trans-Sahara railroad, having noticed a mound of sand in 
the neighborhood of Wargal, had the sand dug up, and discovered tlie top of 
a dome. This naturally aroused his interest, and getting his Arabs to dig still 
deeper, he found underneath the dome a square tower, then a platform of 
masonry, and finally a complete mosque. Continuing the excavations, M. Tarry 
soon unearthed seven houses in perfect preservation, and came upon a subterra- 
nean watercourse. ' At the last news nine houses had been disinterred, and 
M. Tarry was getting additional assjstance to clear out the precious water- 
course, which he describes as sufficient to irrigate a small forest of palms. It 
is well known that the Sahara was at one time much more populated than it is 
now, and its trade much more extensive ; but no one seems to have supposed 
that cities had been buried under its sands, at least so recently as since the 
introduction of Mahomctanism. 



2o6 THE KNOCKABOUT CLUB IN NORTH AFRICA. 

One day, while we were sitting under a palm-tree at Biskra, 
the Doctor read to us the charming Arab story of Ai'cha, from 
that delightful book of the Lion-killers ; and as it pleased us then, 
perhaps it may also please the readers of our own adventure ; so 
here it is. An Arab is the narrator of the story, telling it to a 
strano^er who had chanced to visit his douar. 

AiCHA, THE LION'S LOVE. 

Once upon a time, and a hundred years or more before I saw the light of 
the sun, there Hved a maiden in our tribe that made famous the name of 
Ai'cha. This maiden was very proud ; not that she was richer than the other 
girls of the tribe, for her father had nothing but his tent, his gun, and his 
horse ; but she was beautiful as a shady tree, and from her beauty was born 
her pride. 

One day, while she was out cutting wood in a forest, she sav/ a large lion 
on a rock above her. At first he seemed not to notice her, but soon discovered 
her presence. Her only weapon was a little hatchet ; but this, she knew, was of 
little account, for had she been armed like a mailed knight she would never 
have dared to attack, or defend herself fromi, so fierce an enemy. Her limbs 
sank beneath her ; she tried to call out, but her voice fell to a whisper, and the 
lion seemed to beckon her to follow him, that he might devour her in some 
secret and hidden retreat. The damsel stood in trembling terror, waiting for 
the king of beasts to lead her wherever he would ; but what was her astonish- 
ment when she saw him come down from the rock with the best smile he could 
assume on his wrinkled face, and make such a bow as only lions can make. 

Then she crossed her hands on her breast, and said, *' Seignior, what dost 
thou command thy humble servant to do? " 

Then answered the hon : " When one is as beautiful as you are, Ai'cha, one 
is no longer a servant, but a queen." 

As may be imagined, A'lcha was as much astonished at the unaccustomed 
sweetness of his voice, as pleased that so great and beautiful a lion, and one 
whom she had never met before, should b'e acquainted with her name. 

*' Who told you," she inquired, '* that my name was A'l'cha?" 

** The wind, that is in love with you, and that is fragrant with roses after it 
has toyed with your hair, whispers * A'lcha ; ' the water, that bathes your feet, 
and then runs past my grotto, doth murmur ' A'i'cha; ' the birds, that, hearing 



TUNIS, CARTHAGE, AND THE GREAT DESERT. 207 

you sing become jealous and die of shame, all the while sing of ' Ai'cha,' only 
' Aicha.' " 

The young girl, blushing with pleasure, made believe pull down her haik 
over her face, but only pushed it farther back, that the lion might see the better. 
He had before hesitated to approach very near her, but now advanced, only to 
see her face grow white with terror at the near approach of his huge lips. In a 
tone that was both anxious and fondly caressing, he said, '' What is the matter, 
Aicha?" 

The maiden felt moved to say, *' I am afraid of thee ; " but did not dare to 
do so, and concealed her feelings by saying, "The Touaregs are near us, and I 
am afraid of them," 

At this the lion's mouth spread into a smile, and he proudly replied : " Am 
I not with you, Ai'cha? And when I am near you need fear nothing." 

*' But I will not always have thee with me," said Aicha; " it is a great way 
from here to my father's tent, and it is growing late." 

*^ But I will gladly see you home," gallantly replied the lion. Taken so by 
surprise, what could the poor girl do but accept. The lion walked to her side, 
and offered her his mane. She wound her fair hand in his tawny locks, and 
with her arm resting on his neck as it would have rested on the shoulder of her 
lover, the twain, each so beautiful, and yet so opposite in their different per- 
fections, walked together toward the doiiar of the tribe. In the road they met 
dark-eyed gazelles that fled from them, and hyenas that crouched to the earth, 
and men and women that prostrated themselves as to a god. But the lion said 
to the gazelles, " Do not run away," and to the hyenas, " Be not afraid," and to 
the men and women, " Rise up, for by the grace of this young girl, who is my 
own true love, I will do you no harm." Then, at the royal word, the gazelles 
wheeled in their swift night, the fierce hyenas raised their ugly faces, the men 
and women rose to their feet, and they all asked : " What is the meaning of this 
beautiful scene ? Do the lion and the girl go together to worship at the tomb 
of the prophet in Mecca?" 

Thus they walked, down through the gum-dropping forest, nd over the 
blossom-scented field, until they came to the dona?', and the white tent of 
Aicha's father rose to sight. Here the lion paused, and with all the grace of a 
royal courtier he asked the maiden's permission to kiss her 

She proffered her warm and blushing cheek, and the lion, with his great 
tongue, licked the red lips of Aicha. He then bowed her farewell, and sat him- 
self down to watch and make sure that she reached her tent in safety. The 
girl turned her head three or four times, in the short walk before her, and she 
saw the lion always watching her from the same place, until she entered the tent. 



2o8 THE KNOCKABOUT CLUB IN NORTH AFRICA. 

'^ Ah ! at last you have come," said her father. 

The girl smiled. 

" I feared you had met with some unpleasant encounter in the woods." 

The girl smiled again. 

" But since you are here, it is a proof that you have not been troubled." 

** Indeed, my father, I have had a very pleasant encounter; that is, if you 
call a lion a pleasant person to meet." 

Notwithstanding the ordinary impassibility of the Arab, the old man turned 
pale. 

" A lion ! and he did not devour you? " 

" No, my father ; on the contrary, he praised my comely looks, then offered 
to see me home, and came with me to the hamlet gate." 

The Arab thought his child was mad. 

** Impossible ! " he cried. 

" How impossible? " 

*' How am I to believe that a lion is capable of such an act of gallantry ? " 

" Shall I prove it to you?" 

*' Yes ; but by what means ? " 

" If you go to the tent door, you will see him, either sitting where I left 
him, or returning to his home." 

*^ Wait till I take down my gun." 

*' Why, am I not with you? " replied the girl, in her pride and conceit; and 
drawing her father by the burnous she led him to the tent door, but the lion 
was nowhere to be seen. 

'' Very well," said the father; '* I see how it is, you have been dreaming." 

** My father, I swear to you I see him still." 

" How did he look? " 

*' He was about four feet high and seven feet long." 

"Well?" 

" With a beautiful mane." 

"Well?" 

" Great eyes, bright as the topaz." 

"Well?" 

" And teeth like ivory, only — " 

"Only what?" 

Aicha lowered her voice : " Only he had a shocking bad breath." 

She had hardly uttered these words before a fearful roar thundered from 
behind the tent, then another sounded about half a mile off, and then another 
from near the mountains, after which they heard nothing more. There had been 



f^ 









io 



^'i^^^- 



W^mx 



''A FEARFUL ROAR THUNDERI-n VKOM THl': .-MOLM aI.n : 



TUNIS, CARTHAGE, AND THE GREAT DESERT. 211 

hardly an instant's interval between the roars. It was then evident that the 
lion, desiring to know what the young girl might say of him, had made a cir- 
cuit and come up behind the tent to listen, and had gone off in great mortifi- 
cation at finding out this imperfection, — so much the more dangerous because 
those who are infected by it never perceive it themselves. A month passed 
by and no more was seen of the lion ; and the maiden had forgotten him, 
save when she told the story to her companions to while away the warm hours 
of noon. 

One day she went again, as before, to cut her fagots, her hatchet in her 
hand. Drawing near the scene of her first adventures, she heard a heavy sigh, 
and on looking around saw the veritable lion, seated a few steps off, watching 
her movements. 

" Good-morning, Aicha," he said in a very dry tone. 

*' Good-morning, my lord," returned Ai'cha in a trembling voice ; for she 
had not forgotten her remark in regard to his fetid breath, nor the triple roar 
of indignation that had followed that impolitic disclosure. 

** Good-morning. What can I do that will be agreeable to you? " 

'* You can do me a favor." 

"What is it?" 

" Come close to me." 

The girl tremblingly obeyed, but wished herself in her father's tent again. 

" Now I am by you." 

" Very well ; raise your hatchet and give me a blow on the head." 

" But, my lord, thou dost not think — " 

*' On the contrary, I have thought much about it." 

'* But, seignior — " 

"Strike!" 

" But, my dear lord — " 

" Strike, Ai'cha, I pray you." 

"Hard or softly?" 

" As hard as you can." 

"But I shall hurt you." 

" What is that to you ? Strike ! " 

" Do you want me to? " 

"I do." 

The girl hesitated no longer, but gave a blow with her hatchet between the 
eyes of the lion, that left a bloody mark where it fell. 

"Thank you," said the lion; and in three bounds he disappeared in the 
wood. 



2 12 ■ THE KNOCKABOUT CLUB IN NORTH AFRICA. 

Since that time, it is said, have the Hons carried the deep vertical wrinkle 
between the eyes that appears so remarkable when they raise their eyebrows. 

'* Dear me ! " said Ai'cha, disappointed in her turn, " he is not going to see 
me home to-day; " and she returned alone. 

The news of this second encounter soon spread through the village, and 
the wisest talebs laid their heads together to resolve its meaning. After much 
thought, and frequent reference to the Koran, they discovered the hidden 
meaning, and translated it as follows : *' God is great, and the lion doeth 
what he wills." 

A month passed by, and Ai'cha was again in the woods, gathering fagots for 
the evening fire. At the moment she cut the first limb from a cedar-tree its 
dense branches parted, and the lion stepped out, with the same melancholy 
countenance as before ; but a gleam burned in his great eyes, that seemed to 
menace what they turned upon. The maiden wanted to fly ; but those great 
eyes nailed her to the earth, and she could not move. The lion stepped up 
to her with his royal mien, and her heart ceased to beat for very terror. 

*' Look at my forehead," said the terrible lover. 

'■'' But the seignior will recollect that it was he that ordered me to do it, and 
that I only obeyed," said the young girl, in a voice quivering with terror and 
anxiety. 

''Yes, and I thank you for it; but it was not of that I was going to speak 
to you." 

''What, then, is it the seignior desires? " 

" Look at this wound on my forehead." 

" I see it." 

"Has it healed?" 

" Perfectly ; it is quite well." 

"That proves, Ai'cha, that the wounds that woman gives to the body are 
very different from the ones she gives to the spirit: the one heals in a month, 
the other, never/' . 

This axiom was spoken in a voice that made the tassels on the pine-tree 
quiver in the air. A woman's shriek rang through the forest. The lion's love 
had gone to sleep forever, and his sensual appetite had awakened. Tongue may 
not speak of what followed. Prophet of God, defend us ! 

The next day, the father of Aicha, with all the stout men of the douar, 
hunted the woods for the fairest maiden of the Zerazer. When they reached 
the place where lay the fagots, they found the white haik, a hatchet, and a 
scalp of long braided hair; but never since that time has man seen or heard 
aught of Aicha. 



TUNIS, CARTHAGE, AND THE GREAT DESERT. 213 

A GLIMPSE OF THE GREAT DESERT SAHARA. 

From the mountain range south of Batna you gain your first ghmpse of this 
sand sea, — avast plain, sweeping away and away. It is Hke the ocean, bound- 
less, save for the horizon's brim ; the image of the ocean, it is heaving, undulat- 
ing, in billows of sand. It bears upon its bosom, like the ocean, isles and islets, 
— the oases, — which are also found grouped into archipelagoes, as this one 
of Zeban, of which the palm islands of Biskra are the most accessible to the 
tourist. 

This vast plain, without limit, unsurveyed, is the Sahara. Its boundaries are 
undefined, therefore many dispute them. Hence it is that some writers claim 
that it begins at one place and others at another. But the truth is that it has 
no fixed boundaries, like the ocean. It is constantly encroaching upon the 
fertile land, sweeping up its sand-billows upon the foot-hills of the mountains, 
sending its sand-storms flying over the Tell and the Metidja, even to the 
Mediterranean. Storms and hurricanes sweep over this vast plain as over the 
ocean ; its oases are the resorts of predatory Bedouins and caravans, even as 
the palm islands of the Pacific are lairs for pirates and havens of rest for storm- 
tossed fleets. Nothing in Nature, perhaps, can present so dreary an aspect as 
the plains of the Sahara, except the fire-scathed crater of a volcano ; and noth- 
ing is so welcome to the traveller and the caravan as the green bulk of an 
oasis, — as welcome as an island of refuge to a storm-tossed sailor. 



CHAPTER XIII. 



FROM TRIPOLI TO EGYPT. 




IE will not ask you to penetrate the Sahara, for one 
acre of sand is very much like another; nothing 
is to be gained by joining a caravan and attempt- 
ing to cross it. Leaving the oasis of Biskra, we 
made our way to the coast. You may now be 
able to reach it by rail, without the discomforts 
of a caravan journey; and there you may eat the dates of the 
desert, and study the fierce Bedouin in his native wilds. Life is 
not always easy in these oases, where the date palms lift their 
feathery fronds above rills and fountains. Sometimes the water 
that fertilizes the palm-grove lies at a great depth from the surface, 
and is painfully brought up through the wells by means of a very 
primitive apparatus. A great skin sewed together, opened wide at 
one end, is lowered and raised by means of ropes passing over 
pulleys. You hear their creaking night and day, as the men, 
women, children, and donkeys labor incessantly ; for all the palms 
and fruit-trees and all the gardens demand water or they die, and 
the people dependent on them die. All the people of the oases 
live, by agriculture, and about their only excitement is the arrival 
or departure of a caravan, or the occurrence of a razzia. The 
caravans come to buy dates, and bring in return wool, spices, and 
cotton. The women weave the wool into garments, which they 
use at home, and some they dye in bright colors and sell again to 



FROM TRIPOLI TO EGYPT. 



215 



the caravans. The people are busy all the morning and the after- 
noon, but at mid-day everybody sleeps, enjoying the siesta; in the 
evening they dance and sing, and listen to music from rude instru- 
ments. About midnight all go to sleep, nearly everybody in the 
open air, to be awakened in the morning by the muezzin's call 
to prayer. The razzia rarely happens to the oasis-dwellers, but to 
tlie shepherds of the plains, or the pastoral people on the skirts 
of the oases. The razzia is a wholesale robbery of sheep or cattle 
by a band of Arabs. Nearly all the Arabs are robbers, after a 




REPELLING ARAB ROBBERS. 



fashion, believing that other people's property is something that 
belongs to them if they can get it. So bands of robber Arabs prowl 
about the country watching for plunder, and when they discover a 



2l6 



THE KNOCKABOUT CLUB IiV NORTH AFRICA. 



flock of sheep or herd of cattle negligently guarded, they swoop 
down upon it, drive off or kill the herdsmen, and hurry the herds 
away to their camps. Then the plundered people will organize a 
pursuit; perhaps a skirmish will result, men are slain, and the 
blood thus spilt will be a pretext for more quarrels and murders, 
sometimes lasting through generations. Thanks to the wise con- 




THE CITADEL OF TRIPOLI. 



trol of the French wherever they are in power, the poor shepherd 
and husbandman are secure in their flocks and gardens. 

From a port of the coast we took passage in a sailing vessel 
for Tripoli, — that solitary city of the desert coast. It was not a 
journey that repaid our toil, for it does not differ much from other 
Arab cities whose glory has departed. It has a beautiful harbor, 
where once the pirates lay in wait for Christian fleets, and has a 
magnificent background of forest, composed of palms, oranges, figs, 




DECATUR SAILING INTO THE HARBOR OF TRIPOLI. 



FROM TRIPOLI TO EGYPT. 



219 



and olives. Many were the deeds of valor performed by the in- 
trepid Decatur in this vicinity during the war between the United 
States and Tripoli. Many mosques and castles adorn the ruinous 
old city, and many of the streets are spanned by arches that pre- 
vent opposite houses from falling in. The Tripolitan oasis is one 
of the very few verdure-spots in this dreary desert. " It makes a 
singular contrast, this fertile region, lying between two plains of 
yellow sand, — an emerald necklace round a tawny throat. Here a 
garden, where plants grow with marvellous energy, and the foliage 
of the lemon-tree doubles the shadow of the palm ; and behind the 
walls the absolute desolation of the parched desert, dunes of fine 
moving sand swept into waves and curves by the wind. Then one 
is tempted to repeat, with the old philosopher, ' Water is life ; ' for 
the presence or absence of water is the key to the mystery." 

It was not our original intention to extend our explorations 
beyond North Africa proper, and hence Tripoli should have been 
our last destination, as we had now visited all the Barbary States 
— Morocco, Algiers, and Tunis — from Tangier to Tripoli. Here 
we had observed all we had come for, — the Arab as he now lives 
in the country he had subjugated a thousand years ago. It was 
put to vote whether we should keep on to Egypt, or then and 
there terminate our journeyings for the year, reserving the Land of 
the Pyramids for another time. We had another month at our 
disposal, so it was unanimously voted to put that month into Egypt, 
even thousfh the season was too far advanced for us to take the 
boat-journey up the Nile. Taking a sailing vessel for Malta, we then 
made direct connection with the steamer for Alexandria. 

Although we went to Alexandria merely as an Egyptian port 
whence we might reach Cairo and the Pyramids, yet we discov- 
ered much of interest in this city founded by Alexander the Great. 
For does it not date from a very early period, — from the year 
332 B. c, — and does it not command the moOlth of the Nile and give 



220 



THE KNOCKABOUT CLUB IN NORTH AFRICA. 



access to Cairo and Suez? Nineteen hundred years ago, history 
tells us, it was taken by the Romans ; and it was then the 
centre of philosophy, religion, and culture. Here was the great 
Alexandrian library, said to have contained at one time seven hun- 
dred thousand volumes of manuscripts. This Hbrary was burned 
by order of the Caliph Omar when Alexandria was captured by 
the fanatical Arabs in 640. You remember, of course, the decree 
of the ignorant despot who beheved only in the God of the Prophet, 




A VIEW OF TRIPOLI. 



Mahomet, and reckoned all books other than the Koran as useless 
and superfluous : " If these writings agree with the Koran they are 
useless, and need not be preserved ; if they do not they are perni- 
cious, and ought to be destroyed." A?id destroyed they were, fur- 
nishing fuel, it is said, for six months to heat the baths of Alexan- 
dria. Over six hundred years later a similar destruction of valuable 



FROM TRIPOLI TO EGYPT. 22 1 

books was ordered by Cardinal Ximenes, in Spain, of Arabic manu- 
scripts, as precious, in their way, as those of the famous Alexan- 
drian. Alexandria, to-day, is a most cosmopolitan city, swarming 
with Arabs, Turks, Persians, Armenians, Copts, and Jews, besides 
French, ItaHans, English, etc., and even Americans. Your reception 
by the beggars and donkey-boys is most cordial, and you need not 
lack for company if you are not particular about the quality. The 
European quarter of the city has fine houses, squares, and prome- 
nades, and the city is fast recovering from the brutal bombard- 
ment it suffered from the English war-ships a few years ago. It 
was not modern Alexandria we were most interested in, nor modern 
Egypt. As the reader knows, we had come here to observe the 
influence of the Arabs upon Egypt, and to study Oriental archi- 
tecture. This object could best be attained by a visit to Cairo, and 
thence we went, by train, with hardly a day's delay. In going from 
Alexandria to Cairo by rail we skirt Lake Mareotis, a very shallow 
lake, which in the dry season is little else than a vast swamp. But 
thousands, perhaps millions, of water-fowl are seen here, such as 
ducks of many species, pelicans, ibis, herons, and other denizens 
of the watery regions ; and hence great sport is found here by the 
gunners. 

The journey by rail takes from five to seven hours, and the 
distance is about one hundred and thirty miles. We cross the 
famous Delta of Egypt, a country fertile in cotton, sugar-cane, and 
grain lands, which are divided by canals, and their fertility kept 
up by irrigation. We were extremely interested in the operation 
of raising the water from the canals to the irrigating ditches. 
" The shadorf is the arrangement most in vogue. It consists of 
a long pole, made heavy at one end and resting on a pivot, at 
the other end a bucket, or large water-tight basket, which is low- 
ered to the water and filled, and, as the heavy end of the pole 
goes down, turns out its contents into a little gutter, whence it is 



222 THE KNOCKABOUT CLUB IN NORTH AFRICA, 

worked by the foot into the appointed channels. Sometimes this is 
superseded by the sakish, which is a water-mill of cogged wheels, 
turned by a buffalo or camel, each revolution of the wheel work- 
ing up a series of earthen pitchers which empty themselves into 
a trough or pool. More primitive still is the practice, in frequent 
use, of raising the water without any mechanical contrivance. Two 
men stand in the stream or canal with a waterproof basket- between 
them, which they swing as regularly as clockwork, and throw the 
water on to the bank, when another stands ready to divert it into 
its proper place. Not less interesting is it to watch the Egyptians 
ploughing with the primitive wooden plough." 

At last the minarets of Cairo come to view, and the train, as 
it halts, is surrounded by a miserable lot of Arabs, all anxious to 
seize our luggage and make off with it. The Professor, who had 
previously had a taste of Oriental travel, instructed us to keep the 
wTctches at bay while he made a bargain with one of them to 
take our effects to a certain hotel. 'Once settled in our hotel, 
where we had all the comforts of Europe at our disposal, we made 
excursions to the various parts of the city. We bargained with 
two bright-looking donkey-boys to furnish us their services and 
their beasts, and we are glad to put on record that they served 
us faithfully and well. There were many objects of interest in 
Cairo to be seen. We visited and made many purchases in the 
bazaars, saw the dancing dervishes and Joseph's Well, the mosques 
and palace of Gezeereh, the tombs, the walls and gates of the city, — 
for Cairo was a walled city, with seventy-one gates, — and the fa- 
mous museum at Boulak. Outside the walls we were attracted 
by the obelisk of Heliopolis, the ruins of Memphis, old Cairo and 
the Nilometer, the petrified forest and the pyramids. Some of the 
bazaars are devoted to porcelain and works of glass, some to boots 
and shoes and embroidered leather, others to jewelry and precious 
stones. Joseph's Well is a curiosity of the citadel, a circular open- 



FROM TRIPOLI TO EGYPT. 



223 



ing fifteen feet in diameter and two hundred and ninety feet deep, 
descending to the level of the Nile. A winding staircase leads to 
the bottom, where donkeys are at work raising water to the cita- 
del by an endless chain. The citadel itself commands the town, 
and is worthy of admiration. It was the scene of the infamous 
slaughter of the Mamelukes in the year 181 1. 

" The Mamelukes," said the Professor, '* were a class of soldiery who ruled 
Egypt for a very long period. They were originally foreigners, and were first 
introduced into Egypt, by one of the sultans, about the middle of the thirteenth 
century, and called Bahri Mamelukes (Arabic memalik, a slave), or Mamelukes 
of the river, from the island in the river Nile where they trained to arms. 
They were the Sultan's body-guard at first ; at length, becoming strong, they 
murdered their master and placed one Eybek, their own commander, on the 
throne. In 15 17, the Mamelukes were overcome by the Turks, and Egypt was 
divided into twenty-four provinces, each one under a Mameluke bey, or gov- 
ernor, but ruled over by a Turkish viceroy. They were then about twelv^e 
thousand in number, but still were essentially foreigners, obtaining even their 
wives from abroad, by purchase. 

*' It is not yet a hundred years since Napoleon Bonaparte encountered the 
Mamelukes, when he invaded Egypt, in 1798; and it was when on his march 
from Alexandria to Cairo. * The whole plain was covered with Mamelukes,* 
says a historian, ' mounted on the finest Arabian horses, and armed with pistols, 
carbines, and blunderbusses of the best English make, their plumed turbans 
waving in the air, and their rich arms and equipments glittering in the sun.' 

" Entertaining a high contempt for the French force, as consisting almost 
entirely of infantry, this splendid barbaric chivalry watched every opportunity 
for charging them, nor did a single straggler escape the unrelenting edge of 
their sabres. Their charge was almost as swift as the wind ; and as their severe 
bits enabled them to halt or wheel their horses at full gallop, their retreat was as 
rapid as their advance. Even the practised veterans of Italy were at first em- 
barrassed by this new mode of fighting, and lost rhany men, especially when fatigue 
caused any one to fall out of the ranks, in which case his fate became certain. 
But they were soon reconciled to fighting the Mamelukes when they discov- 
ered that each of these horsemen carried his entire fortune about him, some- 
times amounting to great sums of gold. It was at that famous Battle of the 
Pyramids, July 21, 1798, that the Mamelukes received a severe rebuke to their 



224 ^-^^ KNOCKABOUT CLUB IN NORTH AFRICA. 

pride. Seven thousand of them attacked the French, who slaughtered them 
most mercilessly; more than half their number were slain. Within a compara- 
tively short time we have had news of equally desperate valor on the part of 
the wild Bedouins of the desert, meeting with quite as sanguinary defeat, as, for 
instance, the attack of the fanatical Arabs upon the English forces of the upper 
Nile only a few years ago, and their enormous losses. Again and again they 
charged upon the British troops, only to be mown down in heaps by the guns 
of their foes before they could get within striking distance. 

*' Well, the French troops of Napoleon's army were not so well equipped as 
the British of ninety years later, with their repeating arms and Gatling guns ; 
but Arab bravery and fanaticism were as true as a century ago. Said Bona- 
parte : ' Could I have united the Mameluke horse to the French infantry, I 
would have reckoned myself master of the world ! ' But the world was com- 
paratively small at that time, and no account was taken by Napoleon of this 
New World of ours, in which the United States were then girding themselves 
for destiny. The French were driven from Egypt, and the Mamelukes some- 
what regained their power. But they fell out with the Turks and were brought 
to the verge of destruction in i8ii ; and it was in this citadel of Cairo that 
Mehemet-Ali consummated that act of fearful treachery by which nearly five 
hundred Mameluke chieftains were put to death. He somehow beguiled them 
into the citadel and then closed the gates and ordered his soldiers to shoot 
them down. In like manner, you will remember, the avaricious Alvarado, lieu- 
tenant of Cortez in Mexico, enticed the Aztec chiefs and nobles within the 
temple court where the Spanish army was quartered, and then put them all to 
death. Of the entrapped Mamelukes only one escaped the slaughter ; this 
was a bey, who leaped his horse from the parapet — a fearful plunge — and 
made his escape uninjured, though his horse was killed. The Mamelukes 
were afterward massacred throughout Egypt, and a few years later were 
unknown. 

** Cairo was long the home of the fierce Arabs who came from Arabia and 
overran Egypt and thence the north coast of Africa, which we have been de- 
scribing. Here we find the great archetypes of the mosques and palaces we 
saw in Algiers, in Tangier, and Tlemcen. The great mosque of Mehemet-Ali, 
though not very old, has a vast cupola and a spacious court. From above its 
pavilion a very extensive view is obtained of Cairo and its surroundings, — the 
city itself, with its many minarets and domes, beyond it the green fields of the 
Delta, the tombs of the Mamelukes, and the obelisk of Heliopolis. It has been 
called one of the finest views in the world ; and to give it added attractiveness, 
the great pyramids rise in their grandeur above the banks of Mother Nile." 



FROM TRIPOLI TO EGYPT. 227 

The Historian called our attention to the fancied resemblance of 
the ruins in Yucatan and Mexico to some of the Egyptian struc- 
tures. He spoke especially of an island on the coast of Yucatan 
called Las Mugeres. 

It is about five miles long, and half a mile wide in its broadest part, and is 
composed entirely of coralline stone. An old historian describes it well, and 
the astonishment with which the Europeans regarded the temples and idols of 
stone found there, — the first of the kind ever looked upon by Spaniards in the 
New World. The island was called by them Las Mugeres, — "The Women's 
Island," because, says the old writer, '* there were there towers of stone, with 
steps, and chapels covered with wood and straw, in which many idols, that ap- 
peared to be females, were arranged in very artificial order." The Spaniards 
marvelled to see edifices of stone, — that up to that time they had not seen in 
these islands, — and that the people there clothed themselves so richly and 
beautifully, because they had on tunics and mantles of white cotton and in 
colors, ornamented with feathers, and with gold and silver jewelry. . . . The 
Indians were seen in great numbers, and an action ensued in which fifteen 
Spaniards were wounded and seventeen Indians killed. Where this defeat was 
sustained, there were three houses made of stone and lime, which were orato- 
ries, with many idols of clay, having countenances of demons, of women, and of 
other horrid figures. And while they fought, the priest, Alonzo Gonzalez, took 
from the oratories boxes in which were idols of clay and wood, with ornaments, 
adornments, and diadems of gold. This same *' Women's Island," then, was 
the first land .trodden by Spanish adventurers on the coast of Yucatan. Besides 
a large native population, this island also boasted of a numerous floating popu- 
lation of pilgrims, who came yearly from the mainland to offer sacrifices at the 
shrine dedicated to the female idols. This shrine still stands to-day on the 
narrowest part of the promontory, washed by the waves ; and recent explorers 
have found there some of the veritable incense-burners in which the pilgrims 
burned fragrant styrax and copal before the chief goddess. The shrine itself, 
or altar of the goddess, is found in the inner room of a stone tower, which was 
known as the holy of holies ; and it was on this altar that the adventurers 
found the images and idols which were destroyed by their fanatical chaplain, 
who replaced them by an image of the Virgin Mary, and celebrated Mass. 
Silent and deserted stands the lonely tower to-day, — a solitary sentinel over- 
looking the little bay. 

On the western shore of Yucatan is Campeche, discovered by the first 



228 THE KNOCKABOUT CLUB IN NORTH AFRICA. 

explorer of this coast, Hernandez de Cordova, in 15 17. He landed on the site 
of Campeche, and found an Indian city there, filled with temples of stone, con- 
taining hideous idols in the shape of serpents. The natives met him in troops, 
and without wasting words kindled a fire, telling him and his soldiers that if 
they were not off" and away before those fires had gone out, their extermina- 
tion would be only the work of a short space of time. And Cordova and his 
soldiers heeded this warning and went, nor stood upon the order of their going. 
It was in 1540 that the present city was founded by Don Francisco de Montejo, 
and its name is derived from two words in the Maya dialect: caniy a serpent, 
and pechey an insect called by the Spaniards garrapata. 



I 




CHAPTER XIV. 

THE PYRAMIDS AND THE NILE. 

IN, to the pyramids ! " was our watch-cry as soon 
as the sights of Cairo had been made to yield 
their lessons of value. We were all unanimous 
on this point, that we wanted to see the pyra- 
mids, but from different reasons. The Doctor 
merely wanted to see in how short a time he could 
climb to the summit of the Great Pyramid, and he scorned the 
statement by a British tourist that it would make him tired. 
" Tired ! " he echoed. " Tired ! Pooh ! Have n't I climbed higher 
than that .^ Have n't I been up to the top of Mount Washington, — 
climbed up all sides of it, and all sorts of ways, — up the old bridle- 
path from Crawford's Notch, and up the cliffs through Tuckerman's 
Ravine, and over the railroad track to the summit, and is n't that 
more than fifteen times as high as that old pile of stones and 
rocks?" Mere height, we told him, was of little consequence; the 
interest attaching to the pyramids resulted from their age, from their 
mysterious character, and from their being the greatest works of the 
greatest people who lived at the time of their erection. The His- 
torian had looked forward to his visit to Egypt for several years, 
and so had the Professor. They both regretted that the time at 
their disposal was so short, and that they had not come more 
thoroughly prepared for a longer journey up the Nile. To them, 



230 THE KNOCKABOUT CLUB IN NORTH AFRICA. 

these relics of a dead and departed people were of the greatest im- 
portance, and they approached them with feelings bordering upon 
reverence and awe. 

In America, in Mexico, and in Central America the Professor had 




man's willing slave. 



I 



THE PYRAMIDS AND THE NILE. 233 

visited and examined the ancient structures and pyramids. He 
had climbed the terraced sides of the great earth-pyramid of Cholula, 
where Quetzalcoatl, the god of the air, once had a temple, and had 
slept in the sculptured palaces of Yucatan. He had seen some of 
the largest mounds left by the Mound-builders, and had wandered 
among the pueblos and cliff-dwellings of Arizona and New Mexico. 
Thus it was with intense interest that he regarded the pyramids of 
Egypt, the greatest of their kind. Our impatience was hardly to be 
repressed, until we had halted at the base of the Great Pyramid. The 
journey thither consumed but an hour or two, as there was a good 
road all the way, and it was not long after leaving the Arab beggars 
of Cairo before we were engaged in conflict with their brother barba- 
rians at the pyramids. They wanted us to climb at once, and at least 
forty pairs of dirty hands were extended to our assistance by forty 
ferocious Arabs. We refused all offers, however, till we had seen the 
Sheik of the Pyramid, the chief thief of this robber-band, and secured 
his assent and consent, by the payment of a small sum of money, — 
about a dollar for each member of our party. Of course the Great 
Pyramid was the one we climbed, in preference to the others. There 
are at least three large pyramids at Ghizeh, and several smaller ones, 
besides many tombs and (what has been called by some the greatest 
curiosity of all) the Sphinx. 

The Great Pyramid, or the ancient sepulchre of Cheops, is 460 
feet in height, has a base-line of 732 feet, and covers an area of 
535,824 feet. Its height is twice that of Bunker Hill Monument, 
with twenty feet to spare. One might imagine that the pyramid 
was a solid mass; but about forty feet from the base-line, on the 
northern side, is an opening from which a vaulted gallery descends 
to a subterranean chamber nearly three hundred and fifty feet from 
the entrance. This chamber is about ninety feet below the base 
of the pyramid itself, is about 11 feet in height, 46 feet long, and 
27 feet wide. An upward-leading passage, some sixty feet from the 



2 34 



THE KNOCKABOUT CLUB IN NORTH AFRICA. 



outer air, conducts toward the centre of the pyramid, and reaches 
at a distance of 125 feet, the so-called Great Gallery. Another, 
a horizontal passage no feet long, leads to the Queen's Chamber, 
18 feet long and 20 feet high. The Great Gallery is 151 feet 
long, 7 feet wide, and 28 feet high, with a surface of polished stone, 
and leads upward to a vestibule which is said to have been obstructed 
by a portcullis of massive granite. The chief room in this pyramid is 
the King's Chamber, 34 feet in length, 17 feet broad, and 19 feet 
high, in which are the remains of an open sarcophagus of red granite. 
Higher yet are other rooms, but without any special feature of 
attraction. 

About four thousand years ago (roughly computing), learned 
archaeologists say, this chief pyramid was begun, the first of the 
Egyptian monuments of this character. The second Pyramid, sup- 
posed to have been built by Cephrenes, brother to Chaopa, has 
a base-line of 690 feet, and is 447 feet in height. The third 
pyramid has a base-line of 333 feet, and is but 203 feet in height. 

But enough of statistics, of measurements, and speculation's as 
to the origin and antiquity of the pyramids. As the works of men 
are measured they are vast, awe-inspiring ; beside the works' of the 
Creator they are as specks of sand compared with the Walls of 
the Alps. Man comes here to wonder; he climbs painfully their 
broken sides, gazes at the monuments of the past about him, 
shakes his head solemnly, and departs, wondering at the mighty 
works of the departed Egyptians. Even so did we. With the 
assistance of two or three Arabs apiece, one on each side and 
another to push, we successfully scaled the Great Pyramid. Even 
the Doctor, who was so scornfully confident, did not disdain the 
assistance of two Arabs ; and after he had reached the summit, 
and had seated himself to rest, he was heard to remark that even 
the cliffs above Tuckerman's Ravine were n't any harder to sur- 
mount. But even the Doctor confessed that the view from the 




EGYPTIAN GARDEN AND TF-MPLE. 



THE PYRAMIDS AND THE NILE. 



2Z7 



summit more than repaid us for the great exertion. And it was 
not any more the scenes spread out around us than the mental 
pictures of the past these scenes evoked, that made our climbing 
of the pyramid memorable. 

Four thousand years ! A thousand years have rolled by since 
the interior of the pyramid was opened — forcibly opened — by the 
Caliph El Mainoon. Not far away, perhaps a quarter of a mile, 
crouched the Sphinx, the " Father of Immensity." Its body, mainly 
of the natural rock, is 140 feet in length, its paws are 50 feet in 
length, its massive head 30 feet from brow to chin. The Sphinx 
is said to be of greater antiquity than even the pyramids, to have 
existed long before the Great Pyramid was built. Listen to what 
the learned Kinglake says of it : — 

** Upon ancient dynasties of Ethiopian and Egyptian kings ; upon Greek 
and Roman, upon Arab and Ottoman conquerors; upon Napoleon, dreaming 
of an Eastern empire ; upon battle and pestilence ; upon the ceaseless misery 
of the Egyptian race ; upon keen-eyed travellers ; upon Herodotus yesterday 
and Warburton to-day, — upon all, and more, this unworldly Sphinx has watched 
and watched." 

Not far away was old Cairo, opposite which is the island of 
Roda, where we may find the famed Nilometer, that invention of 
the ancients which marks the annual rise of the river Nile. Another 
ancient place is Heliopolis, where once stood the Temple of the 
Sun, and where to-day is an obelisk said to lead one farther back 
into antiquity than any other monolith in Egypt. 

Standing upon the summit platform of the Great Pyramid, with 
so much of Egypt invitingly spread out before us, little wonder 
that we sent our gaze wistfully into the unknown regions of the 
farther Nile. We could not take the boat-journey up the Nile that 
we would have liked ; but we could send our thoughts ahead, and 
in imagination sail the placid waters of this river of mysteries. 
During the winter months steamers make the journey as far as 



238 THE KNOCKABOUT CLUB IN NORTH AFRICA. 

the Second Cataract of the Nile. Passing the pyramids, the Nilo- 
meter, and the site of ancient Memphis, — once the capital of 
Egypt, with its wonderful tombs and Colossi, — we may see other 
rock tombs, containing beautiful picturings, at Beni-Hassan, one 
hundred and seventy-one miles from Cairo. Far beyond, perhaps 
three hundred and fifty miles from Cairo, and six miles or so from 
the river-bank, are the ruins of Abydos, where the remains of two 
fine temples and an Acropolis attract thousands of visitors. But 
the most magnificent city of the past is Thebes, for the exploration 
of which the steamer stops at the river village of Luxor. 

" The architecture of Egypt may be divided into three periods. The first 
is represented by the pyramids, dating from the time of the Memphian kings, 
and believed to be the oldest structures existing. The second period is the one 
which has bequeatheci to the world the indestructible magnificence of the ruins 
of Karnak and Luxor, and is referable to the dynasties reigning at Thebes. 
The third has left behind it the temples of Hermonthis and Philae, and repre- 
sents the Ptolemaic rulers of Egypt. The great temple palace of Karnak is 
perhaps the noblest structure ever built by human hands. Its principal dimen- 
sions are 1200 feet in length by 360 in breadth, thus covering more than twice 
the area of St. Peter's at Rome. Its Hypostyle Hall alone is 340 feet long and 
170 broad, — an area more extensive than that of Cologne Cathedral." 

And here we find temples, tombs, sarcophagi, the larger struc- 
tures ornamented with bas-reliefs and paintings. Here is the Ra- 
meseum, or the Memnonium, " without a rival in Egypt for elegant 
sculpture and architecture." It was built by Rameses II., the praises 
of whose greatness are inscribed on the walls. In front of the first 
court are two partly demolished pylons. One of these structures 
seems to stand by a curiosity of equilibrium. Both are adorned by 
sculptures representing battle-scenes in the campaigns of Rameses. 
In this court was once the most gigantic statue in Egypt, cut 
from the solid block of granite, and about fifty-four feet in height. 
The Colossi, both representing Amunoph III., once stood before the 



THE PYRAMIDS AND THE NILE. 



239 



pylon of the temple of that monarch, and were nearly sixty feet high. 
One of these great statues was the famous " Vocal Memnon," so 
called from the sounds which issued from it when first reached in 
the morning by the rays of the sun. 

The ruins of Luxor are equally celebrated ; and here stands the 
companion obelisk to that one now to be seen in the Place de la 
Concorde, in Paris. Seven hundred and thirty miles from the mouth 
of the Nile is the town of Assouan, the ancient city of Syene, where 
tropical products are brought up from the distant Southland, such as 
gums and elephant ivory, and the people are strange and rare. The 
island of Elephantine lies opposite Assouan, sometimes called by its 
Arabic name, — Island of Flowers. Only three miles above Assouan 
is the First Cataract of the Nile, the passage of which may be made 
by dahabeah ; but the steamer-voyage ends here, unless you wish to 
proceed in another by transfer. At the cataract, or the rapids, we 
meet with the Nubians, whose country. Nubia, lies to the south. 
Emerging into the river above the First Cataract, we see the islands 
of Philce and Beghieh. 

Philae is called the Key of the Cataract ; it has been successively 
held and defended by different peoples, but now lies in ruins, — a 
dead city in a desolate country. Here begins the Upper Nile, wdiich 
may be navigated to the Second Cataract, over two hundred miles 
from this point. Egypt proper ends and Nubia begins here, and 
w^e are in the Biblical land of the Ethiopians. The climate in the 
winter season is mild and delightful, and boating on the Upper 
Nile a rich experience. Even here, so far from the fertile country 
of the Lower Nile, we find the architectural works of ancient man. 
At Ipsambool is the Great Temple, which one writer calls " the 
most impressive of the monuments of Egyptian grandeur." The 
Second Cataract has long been the returning-point of ordinary tour- 
ists. Claiming to be nothing more than travellers of average am- 
bition with a taste for exploration, though without the time for 



240 THE KNOCKABOUT CLUB IN NORTH AFRICA. 

unlimited adventure, we will not seek to penetrate farther. Beyond, 
far beyond, is the real, the mysterious Dark Continent, — the Africa 
of Bruce and Baker, Livingstone and Stanley. We cannot hope to 
even follow in their footsteps, — at least, not now, — so we will with- 
draw our thoughts from the scenes of their adventures. Stanley's 
province lies south of the Equator, where he has won immortal 
fame. Quite near the equatorial line are the great Murchison Falls, 
discovered by Sir Samuel Baker in 1862. We would gladly extend 
our journey so far; but even this Nile journey is only ours in im- 
agination. Having remained late in Algiers, — till the winter was 
past, — we came to Egypt too late for extended travel. From the 
pyramid-top we had projected our vision into the region of the 
Upper Nile. Here, too, we say farewell. If we have not given you 
new information or ideas, it is not because we have not desired to 
be of service to you. What says the great philosopher .^^ " A man's 
nature runs either to herbs or weeds ; therefore let him seasonably 
water the one and destroy the other." Think upon grand things, 
project noble schemes and studies that shall elevate ; reach up and 
beyond, rather than down and near, is the closing advice of the 
members of this " Knockabout Club." 



41931 



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